illS 

Was 


TRUE  STORIES  OF  GREAT  AMERICANS 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


OTHER  BOOKS  BY  MR.  PEARSON 
(Published  by  The  Macmillan  Company) 

THE  BELIEVING  YEARS 

THE  VOYAGE  OF  THE  HOPPERGRASS 

THE  SECRET  BOOK 

(Published  elsewhere) 
THE  OLD  LIBRARIAN'S  ALMANACK 
THE  LIBRARY  AND  THE  LIBRARIAN 
THE  LIBRARIAN  AT  PLAY 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood. 

MR.   ROOSEVELT   AT   SAGAMORE    HILL 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


BY 
EDMUND  LESTER  PEARSON 


H2eto  gork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1920 

AU  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1920, 
BT  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  July,  1920. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The  author  wishes  to  express  his  gratitude  for 
permission  to  refer  to  the  works  which  have  been 
consulted  in  writing  this  book, 
book. 

First  and  foremost,  to  Mr.  William  Roscoe 
Thayer,  for  "  Theodore  Roosevelt ;  An  Intimate 
Biography."  (Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.) 

To  Messrs.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons  for  these 
writings  of  Theodore  Roosevelt :  "  African  Game 
Trails  " ;  "  Theodore  Roosevelt :  An  Autobiogra 
phy  " ;  "  The  Rough  Riders  " ;  "  Through  the  Bra 
zilian  Wilderness";  "History  as  Literature." 
And  for  "  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  His  Time  " 
by  Joseph  Bucklin  Bishop,  in  Scribner's  Magazine, 
for  December,  1919. 

To  Messrs.  Harper  and  Brothers  and  to  Mr. 
Hermann  Hagedorn  for  "  The  Boys'  Life  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt  "  by  Hermann  Hagedorn. 

To  The  Century  Company  for  these  books  by 
Theodore  Roosevelt :  "  The  Strenuous  Life  " ; 
"  Ranch  Life  and  the  Hunting  Trail." 

To  Messrs.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons  for  these 
books  by  Theodore  Roosevelt :  "  American 
Ideals";  "The  Wilderness  Hunter." 

424521 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

To  Mr.  Charles  G.  Washburn  for  his  "  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt;  the  Logic  of  His  Career." 
(Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.) 

To  Messrs  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  and  to  Mr. 
Lawrence  F.  Abbott  for  "  Impressions  of  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt "  by  Lawrence  F.  Abbott. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  THE  BOY  WHO  COLLECTED  ANIMALS    .     .       i 

II    IN  COLLEGE 10 

III  IN  POLITICS .     .      .     18 

IV  "  RANCH  LIFE  AND  THE  HUNTING  TRAIL  "    28 
V    Two  DEFEATS 37 

VI     FIGHTING  OFFICE-SEEKERS 44 

VII     POLICE  COMMISSIONER 50 

VIII     THE  ROUGH  RIDER 58 

IX     GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK 70 

X  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  .     .      .81 

XI     THE  LION  HUNTER 99 

XII     EUROPE  AND  AMERICA no 

XIII  THE  BULL  MOOSE 120 

XIV  THE  EXPLORER 131 

XV    THE  MAN 137 

XVI    THE  GREAT  AMERICAN 149 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Mr.  Roosevelt  at  Sagamore  Hill  .     .     .     Frontispiece 

TACINQ 
PAGE 

Theodore  Roosevelt  About  10  Years  Old    ...  33 

Mr.  Roosevelt  as  a  Hunter 48 

President  Roosevelt  Speaking  in  Alabama  .      .      .  81 

The  Rough  Rider  (Cartoon) 96 

President  Roosevelt  in  the  Saddle 113 

President  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  Children     .     .  128 

President  Theodore  Roosevelt 144 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   BOY   WHO    COLLECTED   ANIMALS 

IF  you  had  been  in  New  York  in  1917  or  1918 
you  might  have  seen,  walking  quickly  from  a 
shop  or  a  hotel  to  an  automobile,  a  thick-set  but  ac 
tive  and  muscular  man,  wearing  a  soft  black  hat 
and  a  cape  overcoat.  Probably  there  would  have 
been  a  group  of  people  waiting  on  the  sidewalk, 
as  he  came  out,  for  this  was  Theodore  Roose 
velt,  Ex-President  of  the  United  States,  and  there 
were  more  Americans  who  cared  to  know  what 
he  was  doing,  and  to  hear  what  he  was  saying, 
than  cared  about  any  other  living  man. 

Although  he  was  then  a  private  citizen,  holding 
no  office,  he  was  a  leader  of  his  country,  which 
was  engaged  in  the  Great  War.  Americans  were 
being  called  upon, —  the  younger  men  to  risk 
their  lives  in  battle,  and  the  older  people  to  suffer 
and  support  their  losses.  Theodore  Roosevelt 
had  always  said  that  it  was  a  good  citizen's  duty 


.a.!    :-:    .;riiEOEiaRE,:ROOSEVELT 

cheerfully  to  do  one  or  the  other  of  these  things  in 
the  hour  of  danger.  They  knew  that  he  had  done 
both;  and  so  it  was  to  him  that  men  turned,  as 
to  a  strong  and  brave  man,  whose  words  were 
simple  and  noble,  and  what  was  more  important, 
whose  actions  squared  with  his  words. 

He  had  come  back,  not  long  before,  from  one 
of  his  hunting  trips,  and  it  was  said  that  fever 
was  still  troubling  him.  The  people  wish  to 
know  if  this  is  true,  and  one  of  the  men  on  the 
sidewalk,  a  reporter,  probably,  steps  forward  and 
asks  him  a  question. 

He  stops  for  a  moment,  and  turns  toward  the 
man.  Not  much  thought  of  sickness  is  left  in 
the  mind  of  any  one  there!  His  face  is  clear, 
his  cheeks  ruddy, —  the  face  of  a  man  who  lives 
outdoors;  and  his  eyes,  light-blue  in  color,  look 
straight  at  the  questioner.  One  of  his  eyes,  it 
had  been  said,  was  dimmed  or  blinded  by  a  blow 
while  boxing,  years  before,  when  he  was  Presi 
dent.  But  no  one  can  see  anything  the  matter 
with  the  eyes;  they  twinkle  in  a  smile,  and  as  his 
face  puckers  up,  and  his  white  teeth  show  for  an 
instant  under  his  light-brown  moustache,  the 
group  of  people  all  smile,  too. 

His  face  is  so  familiar  to  them, —  it  is  as  if  they 
were  looking  at  somebody  they  knew  as  well  as 
their  own  brothers.  The  newspaper  cartoonists 


COLLECTED  ANIMALS  3 

had  shown  it  to  them  for  years.  No  one  else 
smiled  like  that;  no  one  else  spoke  so  vigorously. 

"  Never  felt  better  in  my  life ! "  he  answers, 
bending  toward  the  man. 

"  But  thank  you  for  asking !  "  and  there  is  a 
pleasant  and  friendly  note  in  his  voice,  which  per 
haps  surprises  some  of  those  who,  though  they 
had  heard  much  of  his  emphatic  speech,  knew 
but  little  of  his  gentleness.  He  waves  his  hand, 
steps  into  the  automobile,  and  is  gone. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  was  born  October  27, 
1858,  in  New  York  City,  at  28  East  Twentieth 
Street.  The  first  Roosevelt  of  his  family  to 
come  to  this  country  was  Klaes  Martensen  van 
Roosevelt  who  came  from  Holland  to  what  is 
now  New  York  about  1644.  He  was  a  "  settler," 
and  that,  says  Theodore  Roosevelt,  remembering 
the  silly  claims  many  people  like  to  make  about 
their  long-dead  ancestors,  is  a  fine  name  for  an 
immigrant,  who  came  over  in  the  steerage  of  a 
sailing  ship  in  the  seventeenth  century  instead  of 
the  steerage  of  a  steamer  in  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  From  that  time,  for  the  next  seven  genera 
tions,  from  father  to  son,  every  one  of  the  family 
was  born  on  Manhattan  Island.  As  New 
Yorkers  say,  they  were  "  straight  New  York." 

Immigrant  or  settler,  or  whatever  Klaes  van 


4  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  may  have  been,  his  children  and  grand 
children  had  in  them  more  than  ordinary  ability. 
They  were  not  content  to  stand  still,  but  made 
themselves  useful  and  prosperous,  so  that  the 
name  was  known  and  honored  in  the  city  and 
State  even  before  the  birth  of  the  son  who  was 
to  make  it  illustrious  throughout  the  world. 

"  My  father,"  says  the  President,  "  was  the 
best  man  I  ever  knew.  .  .  .  He  never  physically 
punished  me  but  once,  but  he  was  the  only  man 
of  whom  I  was  ever  really  afraid."  The  elder 
Roosevelt  was  a  merchant,  a  man  courageous  and 
gentle,  fond  of  horses  and  country  life.  He 
worked  hard  at  his  business,  for  the  Sanitary 
Commission  during  the  Civil  War,  and  for  the 
poor  and  unfortunate  of  his  own  city,  so  hard 
that  he  wore  himself  out  and  died  at  forty-six. 
The  President's  mother  was  Martha  Bulloch  from 
Georgia.  Two  of  her  brothers  were  in  the  Con 
federate  Navy,  so  while  the  Civil  War  was  going 
on,  and  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  little  boy,  his 
family  like  so  many  other  American  families,  had 
in  it  those  who  wished  well  for  the  South,  and 
those  who  hoped  for  the  success  of  the  North. 

Many  American  Presidents  have  been  poor 
when  they  were  boys.  They  have  had  to  work 
hard,  to  make  a  way  for  themselves,  and  the  same 
strength  and  courage  with  which  they  did  this  has 


COLLECTED  ANIMALS  5 

later  helped  to  bring  them  into  the  White  House. 
It  has  seemed  as  if  there  were  magic  connected 
with  being  born  in  a  log-cabin,  or  having  to  work 
hard  to  get  an  education,  so  that  only  the  boys 
who  did  this  could  become  famous.  Of  course  it 
is  what  is  in  the  boy  himself,  together  with  the 
effect  his  life  has  had  on  him,  that  counts.  The 
boy  whose  family  is  rich,  or  even  well-off,  has 
something  to  struggle  against,  too.  For  with 
these  it  is  easy  to  slip  into  comfortable  and  lazy 
ways,  to  do  nothing  because  one  does  not  have  to 
do  anything.  Some  men  never  rise  because  their 
early  life  was  too  hard;  some,  because  it  was  too 
easy. 

Roosevelt  might  have  had  the  latter  fate.  His 
father  would  not  have  allowed  idleness ;  he  did  not 
care  about  money-making,  especially,  but  he  did 
believe  in  work,  for  himself  and  his  children. 
When  the  father  died,  and  his  son  was  left  with 
enough  money  to  have  lived  all  his  days  without 
doing  a  stroke  of  work,  he  already  had  too  much 
grit  to  think  of  such  a  life.  And  he  had  too  much 
good  sense  to  start  out  to  become  a  millionaire 
and  to  pile  million  upon  useless  million. 

He  had  something  else  to  fight  against:  bad 
health.  He  writes  :  "  I  was  a  sickly,  delicate  boy, 
suffered  much  from  asthma,  and  frequently  had 
to  be  taken  away  on  trips  to  find  a  place  where  I 


6  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

could  breathe.  One  of  my  memories  is  of  my 
father  walking  up  and  down  the  room  with  me  in 
his  arms  at  night,  when  I  was  a  very  small  per 
son,  and  of  sitting  up  in  bed  gasping,  with  my 
father  and  mother  trying  to  help  me.  I  went 
very  little  to  school.  I  never  went  to  the  public 
schools,  as  my  own  children  later  did."  1  For  a 
few  months  he  went  to  a  private  school,  his  aunt 
taught  him  at  home,  and  he  had  tutors  there. 

When  he  was  ten  his  parents  took  him  with  his 
brother  and  sisters  for  a  trip  to  Europe,  where  he 
had  a  bad  time  indeed.  Like  most  boys,  he  cared 
nothing  for  picture-galleries  and  the  famous 
sights,  he  was  homesick  and  he  wished  to  get  back 
to  what  really  pleased  him, —  that  is,  collecting 
animals.  He  was  already  interested  in  that. 
And  only  when  he  could  go  to  a  museum  and  see, 
as  he  wrote  in  his  diary,  "  birds  and  skeletons  " 
or  go  "  for  a  spree  "  with  his  sister  and  buy  two 
shillings  worth  of  rock-candy,  did  he  enjoy  him 
self  in  Europe. 

His  sister  knew  what  he  thought  about  the 
things  one  is  supposed  to  see  in  Europe,  and  in 
her  diary  set  it  down : 

"  I  am  so  glad  Mama  has  let  me  stay  in  the 
butiful  hotel  parlor  while  the  poor  boys  have  been 
dragged  off  to  the  orful  picture  galary." 
1 "  Autobiography." 


COLLECTED  ANIMALS  7 

These  experiences  are  funny  enough  now,  but 
probably  they  were  tragic  to  him  at  the  time.  In 
a  church  in  Venice  there  were  at  least  some  mo 
ments  of  happiness.  He  writes  of  his  sister 
"  Conie  " : 

"  Conie  jumped  over  tombstones  spanked  me 
banged  Ellies  head  &c." 

But  in  Paris  the  trip  becomes  too  monotonous; 
and  his  diary  says : 

November  26.  "  I  stayed  in  the  house  all  day, 
varying  the  day  with  brushing  my  hair,  washing 
my  hands  and  thinking  in  fact  having  a  verry  dull 
time." 

November  27.  "  I  did  the  same  thing  as  yes 
terday/' 

They  all  came  back  to  New  York  and  again  he 
could  study  and  amuse  himself  with  natural  his 
tory.  This  study  was  one  of  his  great  pleasures 
throughout  life  and  when  he  was  a  man  he  knew 
more  about  the  animals  of  America  than  anybody 
except  the  great  scholars  who  devoted  their  lives 
to  this  alone. 

It  started  with  a  dead  seal  that  he  happened  to 
find  laid  out  on  a  slab  in  a  market  in  Broadway. 
He  was  still  a  small  boy,  but  when  he  heard  that 
the  seal  had  been  killed  in  the  harbor,  it  reminded 
him  of  the  adventures  he  had  been  reading  about 
in  Mayne  Reid's  books.  He  went  back  to  the 


8  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

market,  day  after  day,  to  look  at  the  seal,  to  try  to 
measure  it  and  to  plan  to  own  it  and  preserve  it. 
He  did  get  the  skull,  and  with  two  cousins  started 
what  they  gave  the  grand  name  of  the  "  Roose 
velt  Museum  of  Natural  History  "  ! 

Catching  and  keeping  specimens  for  this  mu 
seum  gave  him  more  fun  than  it  gave  to  some  of 
his  family.  His  mother  was  not  well  pleased 
when  she  found  some  young  white  mice  in  the  ice- 
chest,  where  the  founder  of  the  "  Roosevelt  Mu 
seum  "  was  keeping  them  safe.  She  quickly  threw 
them  away,  and  her  son,  in  his  indignation,  said 
that  what  hurt  him  about  it  was  "  the  loss  to  Sci 
ence  !  The  loss  to  Science !  "  Once,  he  and  his 
cousin  had  been  out  in  the  country,  collecting  spec 
imens  until  all  their  pockets  were  full.  Then  two 
toads  came  along, —  such  novel  and  attractive 
toads  that  room  had  to  be  made  for  them.  Each 
boy  put  one  toad  under  his  hat,  and  started  down 
the  road.  But  a  lady,  a  neighbor,  met  them,  and 
when  the  boys  took  off  their  hats,  the  toads  did 
what  any  sensible  toads  would  do,  hopped  down 
and  away,  and  so  were  never  added  to  the 
Museum. 

The  Roosevelt  family  visited  Europe  again  in 
1873,  and  afterwards  went  to  Algiers  and  Egypt, 
where  the  air,  it  was  hoped,  would  help  the  boy's 
asthma.  This  was  a  pleasanter  trip  for  him,  and 


COLLECTED  ANIMALS  9 

the  birds  which  he  saw  on  the  Nile  interested  him 
greatly. 

His  studies  of  natural  history  had  been  carried 
on  in  the  summers  at  Oyster  Bay  on  Long  Island, 
on  the  Hudson  and  in  the  Adirondacks.  They 
soon  became  more  than  a  boy's  fun,  and  some  of 
the  observations  made  when  he  was  fifteen,  six 
teen  or  seventeen  years  old  have  found  their  way 
into  learned  books.  When  the  State  of  New 
York  published,  many  years  afterwards,  two  big 
volumes  about  the  birds  of  the  state,  some  of  these 
early  writings  by  Roosevelt  were  quoted  as  im 
portant.  A  friend  has  given  me  a  four-page 
folder  printed  in  1877,  about  the  summer  birds 
of  the  Adirondacks  "  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Jr., 
and  H.  D.  Minot"  Part  of  the  observations 
were  made  in  1874  when  he  was  sixteen.  Ninety- 
seven  different  birds  are  listed. 

When  he  was  fifteen  and  had  returned  a  second 
time  from  Europe,  he  began  to  study  to  enter 
Harvard.  He  was  ahead  of  most  boys  of  his  age 
in  science,  history  and  geography  and  knew  some 
thing  of  German  and  French.  But  he  was  weak 
in  Latin,  Greek  and  mathematics.  He  loved  the 
out-of-doors  side  of  natural  history,  and  hoped  he 
might  be  a  scientist  like  Audubon. 


CHAPTER  II 

IN    COLLEGE 

ROOSEVELT  entered  the  Freshman  class  of  Har 
vard  University  in  1876.  It  is  worth  while  to 
remember  that  this  man  who  became  as  much  of 
a  Westerner  as  an  Easterner,  who  was  understood 
and  trusted  by  the  people  of  the  Western  States, 
was  born  on  the  Atlantic  coast  and  educated  at  a 
New  England  college. 

The  real  American,  if  he  was  born  in  the  East, 
does  not  talk  with  contempt  about  the  West;  if 
he  is  a  Westerner  he  does  not  pretend  that  all  the 
good  in  the  world  is  on  his  side  of  the  Mississippi. 
Nor,  wherever  he  came  from,  does  he  try  to  keep 
up  old  quarrels  between  North  and  South.  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt  was  an  American,  and  admired 
by  Americans  everywhere.  Foolish  folk  who 
talk  about  the  "  effete  East/'  meaning  that  the 
East  is  worn  out  and  corrupt,  had  best  remember 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  did  not  believe  that  when 
he  sent  his  son  to  the  same  college  which  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt's  father  chose  for  him. 

At  Harvard  he  kept  up  his  studies  and  interest 
10 


IN  COLLEGE  n 

in  natural  history.  In  the  house  where  he  lived 
he  sometimes  had  a  large,  live  turtle  and  two  or 
three  kinds  of  snakes.  He  went  in  to  Boston  and 
came  back  with  a  basket  full  of  live  lobsters,  to 
the  consternation  of  the  other  people  in  the  horse- 
car.  He  held  a  high  office  in  the  Natural  History 
Society,  and  took  honors,  when  he  graduated,  in 
the  subject.  His  father  had  encouraged  his  de 
sire  to  be  a  professor  of  natural  history,  remind 
ing  him,  however,  that  he  must  have  no  hopes  of 
being  a  rich  man.  In  the  end  he  gave  up  this 
plan,  not  because  it  did  not  lead  to  money,  for 
never  in  his  life  did  he  work  to  become  wealthy, 
but  because  he  disliked  science  as  it  was  then 
taught.  One  of  the  bad  things  the  German  uni 
versities  had  done  to  the  American  colleges  was  to 
make  them  worship  fussy  detail,  and  so  science 
had  become  a  matter  of  microscopes  and  labora 
tories.  The  field-work  of  the  naturalist  was 
unknown  or  despised. 

He  took  part  in  four  or  five  kinds  of  athletics. 
He  seems  never  to  have  played  baseball,  perhaps 
because  of  poor  eyesight  which  made  him  wear 
glasses.  But  he  practiced  with  a  rifle,  rowed  and 
boxed,  ran  and  wrestled.  In  his  vacations  he 
went  hunting  in  Maine.  Boxing  was  one  of  his 
favorite  forms  of  sport, — for  two  reasons.  He 
thought  a  boy  or  a  man  ought  to  be  able  to  de- 


12  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fend  himself  and  others,  and  he  enjoyed  hard 
exercise. 

It  is  important  to  know  what  he  thought  and 
did  about  self-defense  and  fighting.  Many  peo 
ple  dodge  this,  and  other  difficult  subjects,  when 
they  are  talking  to  boys.  It  was  not  Roosevelt's 
way  to  hide  his  thoughts  in  silence  because  of  tim 
idity,  and  then  call  his  lack  of  action  by  some  such 
fine  name  as  "  tact  "  or  "  discretion."  When 
there  was  good  reason  for  speaking  out  he  always 
did  so.  Since  a  boy  who  is  forever  fighting  is 
not  only  a  nuisance,  but  usually  a  bully,  some 
older  folk  go  to  the  extreme  and  tell  boys  that 
all  fighting  is  wrong. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  did  not  believe  it.  When 
he  was  about  fourteen,  and  riding  in  a  stage-coach 
on  the  way  to  Moosehead  Lake,  two  other  boys  in 
the  coach  began  tormenting  him.  When  he  tried 
to  fight  them  off,  he  found  himself  helpless. 
Either  of  them  could  handle  him,  could  hit  him 
and  prevent  him  from  hitting  back.  He  decided 
that  it  was  a  matter  of  self-respect  for  a  boy  to 
know  how  to  protect  himself  and  he  learned  to 
box. 

Speaking  to  boys  he  said  later : 

"  One  prime  reason  for  abhorring  cowards  is 
because  every  good  boy  should  have  it  in  him  to 
thrash  the  objectionable  boy  as  the  need  arises." 


IN  COLLEGE  13 

And  again: 

"  The  very  fact  that  the  boy  should  be  manly 
and  able  to  hold  his  own,  that  he  should  be 
ashamed  to  submit  to  bullying,  without  instant  re 
taliation,  should  in  return,  make  him  abhor  any 
form  of  bullying,  cruelty,  or  brutality."  1 

When  he  was  teaching  a  Sunday  School  class 
in  Cambridge,  during  his  time  at  college,  one  of 
his  pupils  came  in  with  a  black  eye.  It  turned  out 
that  another  boy  had  teased  and  pinched  the  first 
boy's  sister  during  church.  Afterwards  there  had 
been  a  fight,  and  the  one  who  tormented  the  little 
girl  had  been  beaten,  but  he  had  given  the  brother 
a  black  eye. 

"  You  did  quite  right,"  said  Roosevelt  to  the 
brother  and  gave  him  a  dollar. 

But  the  deacons  of  the  church  did  not  approve, 
and  Roosevelt  soon  went  to  another  church. 

Meanwhile  he  was  learning  to  box.  In  his  own 
story  of  his  life  he  makes  fun  of  himself  as  a 
boxer,  and  says  that  in  a  boxing  match  he  once 
won  "  a  pewter  mug  "  worth  about  fifty  cents. 
He  is  honest  enough  to  say  that  he  was  proud  of 
it  at  the  time,  "  kept  it,  and  alluded  to  it,  and  I 
fear  bragged  about  it,  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
I  only  wish  I  knew  where  it  was  now." 

1  These  two  quotations  from  essay  called  "  The  American 
Boy"  in  "The  Strenuous  Life,"  pp.  162,  164. 


14  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

His  college  friends  tell  a  different  story  of  him. 
He  was  never  one  of  the  best  boxers,  they  say,  and 
he  was  at  a  disadvantage  because  of  his  eyesight. 
But  he  was  plucky  enough  for  two,  and  he  fought 
fair.  He  entered  in  the  lightweight  class  in  the 
Harvard  Gymnasium,  March  22,  1879.  He  won 
the  first  match.  When  time  was  called  he 
dropped  his  hands,  and  his  opponent  gave  him  a 
hard  blow  on  the  face.  The  fellows  around  the 
ring  all  shouted  "Foul!  Foul!"  and  hissed. 
But  Roosevelt  turned  toward  them,  calling 
"Hush!  He  didn't  hear!" 

In  the  second  match  he  met  a  man  named 
Charlie  Hanks,  who  was  a  little  taller,  and  had  a 
longer  reach,  and  so  for  all  Roosevelt's  pluck  and 
willingness  to  take  punishment,  Hanks  won  the 
match. 

He  was  a  member  of  three  or  four  clubs, —  the 
Institute,  the  Hasty  Pudding  and  the  Porcellian. 
He  was  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Harvard  Advo 
cate,  took  part  in  three  or  four  college  activities, 
and  was  fond  of  target  shooting  and  dancing.  It 
is  told  that  he  never  spoke  in  public,  until  about 
his  third  year  in  college,  that  he  was  shy  and  had 
great  difficulty  in  speaking.  It  was  by  effort  that 
he  became  one  of  the  best  orators  of  his  day. 

Roosevelt  did  not  like  the  way  college  debates 
were  conducted.  He  said  that  to  make  one  side 


IN  COLLEGE  15 

defend  or  attack  a  certain  subject,  without  regard 
to  whether  they  thought  it  right  or  wrong,  had  a 
bad  effect. 

"  What  we  need,"  he  wrote,  "  is  to  turn  out  of 
colleges  young  men  with  ardent  convictions  on  the 
side  of  right;  not  young  men  who  can  make  a 
good  argument  for  either  right  or  wrong,  as  their 
interest  bids  them." 

He  did  one  thing  in  college  which  is  not  a  mat 
ter  of  course  with  students  under  twenty-two 
years  old.  He  began  to  write  a  history,  named 
"  The  Naval  War  of  1812."  It  was  finished  and 
published  two  years  after  he  graduated,  and  in  it 
he  showed  that  his  idea  of  patriotism  included 
telling  the  truth.  Most  American  boys  used  to 
be  brought  up  on  the  story  of  the  American  frigate 
Constitution  whipping  all  the  British  ships  she 
met,  and  with  the  notion  that  the  War  of  1812 
was  nothing  but  a  series  of  brilliant  victories 
for  us. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  thought  that  Americans 
were  not  so  soft  that  they  were  afraid  to  hear  the 
truth,  and  that  it  was  a  poor  sort  of  American 
who  dared  not  point  out  to  his  fellow-countrymen 
the  mistakes  they  had  made  and  the  disasters 
which  followed.  It  did  not  seem  patriotic  to  him 
to  dodge  the  fact  that  lack  of  wisdom  at  Wash 
ington  had  let  our  Army  run  down  before  the 


16  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

war,  so  that  our  attempts  to  invade  Canada  were 
failures,  and  that  we  suffered  the  disgrace  of  hav 
ing  Washington  itself  captured  and  burned  by  the 
enemy. 

There  was  a  great  deal  to  be  proud  of  in  what 
our  Navy  did,  and  in  the  Army's  victory  in  the 
Battle  of  New  Orleans,  and  these  things  Roose 
velt  described  with  the  pride  of  every  good  Amer 
ican.  But  he  had  no  use  for  the  old-fashioned 
kind  of  history,  which  pretends  that  all  the  brav 
ery  is  on  one  side.  He  did  his  best  to  get  at  the 
truth,  and  he  knew  that  the  English  and  Canadi 
ans  had  fought  bravely  and  well,  and  so  he  said 
just  that.  Where  our  troops  or  our  ships  failed 
it  was  not  through  lack  of  courage,  but  because 
they  were  badly  led,  and  what  was  wrorse,  since 
it  was  so  unnecessary,  because  the  Government  at 
Washington  had  lost  the  battle  in  advance  by  neg 
lecting  to  prepare. 

Before  he  was  twenty-four,  Roosevelt  was  so 
well-informed  in  the  history  of  this  period  that 
he  was  later  asked  to  write  the  chapter  dealing 
with  the  War  of  1812  in  a  history  of  the  British 
Navy. 

At  his  graduation  from  Harvard  he  stood 
twenty-second  in  a  class  of  one  hundred  and  sev 
enty.  This  caused  him  to  be  elected  to  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa,  the  society  of  scholars.  Before  he 


IN  COLLEGE  17 

graduated  he  became  engaged  to  be  married  to 
Miss  Alice  Lee  of  Chestnut  Hill,  Massachusetts. 

He  told  his  friend,  Mr.  Thayer,  what  he  was 
going  to  do  after  graduation. 

"  I  am  going  to  try  to  help  the  cause  of  better 
government  in  New  York  City,"  he  said.  And 
he  added : 

"  I  don't  know  exactly  how." 


CHAPTER  III 

IN    POLITICS 

WHEN  he  graduated  from  college  Roosevelt  was 
no  longer  in  poor  health.  His  boxing  and  exer 
cise  in  the  gymnasium,  and  still  more  his  outdoor 
expeditions,  and  hunting  trips  in  Maine,  had  made 
a  well  man  of  him.  He  was  yet  to  achieve 
strength  and  muscle,  and  his  life  in  the  West  was 
to  give  him  the  chance  to  do  that. 

His  father  died  while  he  was  in  college  and  he 
was  left,  not  rich,  but  so  well  off  that  he  might 
have  lived  merely  amusing  himself.  He  might 
have  spent  his  days  in  playing  polo,  hunting  and 
collecting  specimens  of  animals.  What  he  did 
during  his  life,  in  adding  to  men's  knowledge  of 
the  habits  of  animals,  would  have  gained  him  an 
honorable  place  in  the  history  of  American  sci 
ence,  if  he  had  done  nothing  else.  So  with  his 
writing  of  books.  He  earned  the  respect  of  lit 
erary  men,  and  left  a  longer  list  of  books  to  his 
credit  than  do  most  authors,  and  on  a  greater 
variety  of  subjects.  But  he  was  to  do  other  and 

18 


IN  POLITICS  19 

still  more  important  work  than  either  of  these 
things. 

He  believed  in  and  quoted  from  one  of  the  no 
blest  poems  ever  written  by  any  man, —  Tenny 
son's  "  Ulysses."  And  in  this  poem  are  lines 
which  formed  the  text  for  Roosevelt's  life: 

How  dull  it  is  to  pause,  to  make  an  end, 
To  rust  unburnish'd,  not  to  shine  in  use ! 
As  tho'  to  breathe  were  life. 

This  was  the  doctrine  of  "  the  strenuous  life  " 
which  he  preached, —  and  practiced.  It  was  to 
perform  the  hard  necessary  work  of  the  world, 
not  to  sit  back  and  criticize.  It  was  to  do  dis 
agreeable  work  if  it  had  to  be  done,  not  to  pick 
out  the  soft  jobs.  It  was  to  be  afraid  neither  of 
the  man  who  fights  with  his  fists  or  with  a  rifle, 
nor  of  the  man  who  fights  with  a  sneering  tongue 
or  a  sarcastic  pen. 

To  go  into  New  York  politics  from  1880-1882 
was,  for  a  young  man  of  Roosevelt's  place  in  life, 
just  out  of  college,  what  most  of  his  friends  and 
associates  called  "  simply  crazy."  That  young 
men  of  good  education  no  longer  think  it  a  crazy 
thing  to  do,  but  an  honorable  and  important  one, 
is  due  to  Theodore  Roosevelt  more  than  to  any 
other  one  man. 

As  he  sat  on  the  window-seat  of  his  friend's 


20  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

room  in  Holworthy  Hall,  that  day,  and  said  he 
was  going  to  try  to  help  the  cause  of  better  gov 
ernment  in  New  York,  Mr.  Thayer  looked  at  him 
and  wondered  if  he  were  "  the  real  thing." 
Thirty-nine  years  later  Mr.  Thayer  looked  back 
over  the  career  of  his  college  mate,  and  knew  that 
he  had  talked  that  day  with  one  of  the  great  men 
of  our  Republic,  with  one  who,  as  another  of  his 
college  friends  says,  was  never  a  "  politician  "  in 
the  bad  sense,  but  was  always  trying  to  advance 
the  cause  of  better  government. 

The  reason  why  it  seemed  to  many  good  people 
a  crazy  thing  to  go  into  politics  was  that  the  work 
was  hard  and  disagreeable  much  of  the  time. 
Politics  were  in  the  hands  of  saloon-keepers, 
toughs,  drivers  of  street  cars  and  other  "  low  " 
people,  as  they  put  it.  The  nice  folk  liked  to  sit 
at  home,  sigh,  and  say:  "Politics  are  rotten." 
Then  they  wondered  why  politics  did  not  instantly 
become  pure.  They  demanded  "  reform  "  in  pol 
itics,  as  Roosevelt  said,  as  if  reform  were  some 
thing  which  could  be  handed  round  like  slices  of 
cake.  Their  way  of  getting  reform,  if  they  tried 
any  way  at  all,  was  to  write  letters  to  the  news 
papers,  complaining  about  the  "  crooked  politi 
cians,"  and  they  always  chose  the  newspapers 
which  those  politicians  never  read  and  cared  noth 
ing  about. 


IN  POLITICS  21 

If  any  decent  man  did  go  into  politics,  hoping 
to  do  some  good,  these  same  critics  lamented 
loudly,  and  presently  announced  their  belief  that 
he,  too,  had  become  crooked.  If  it  were  said  that 
he  had  been  seen  with  a  politician  they  disliked, 
or  that  he  ate  a  meal  in  company  with  one,  they 
were  sure  he  had  gone  wrong.  They  seemed  to 
think  that  a  reformer  could  go  among  other  office 
holders  and  do  great  work,  if  he  would  only  begin 
by  cutting  all  his  associates  dead,  and  refusing  to 
speak  to  them. 

It  was  a  fortunate  day  for  America  when 
Theodore  Roosevelt  joined  the  Twenty-first 
District  Republican  Club,  and  later  when  he  ran 
for  the  New  York  State  Assembly  from  the  same 
district.  He  was  elected  in  November,  1881. 
This  was  his  beginning  in  politics. 

In  the  Assembly  at  Albany,  he  presently  made 
discoveries.  He  learned  something  about  the 
crooked  politicians  whom  the  stay-at-home  re 
formers  had  denounced  from  afar.  He  found 
that  the  Assembly  had  in  it  many  good  men,  a 
larger  number  who  were  neither  good  nor  bad, 
but  went  one  way  or  another  just  as  things  hap 
pened  to  influence  them  at  the  moment.  Finally, 
there  were  some  bad  men  indeed.  He  found  that 
the  bad  men  were  not  always  the  poor,  the  uned 
ucated,  the  men  who  had  been  brought  up  in 


22  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

rough  homes,  lacking  in  refinement.  On  the  con 
trary,  he  found  some  extremely  honest  and  useful 
men  who  had  had  exactly  such  unfavorable  begin 
nings. 

Also,  he  soon  discovered  that  there  were,  in 
and  out  of  politics,  some  men  of  wealth,  of  edu 
cation,  men  who  boasted  that  they  belonged  to  the 
"  best  families,"  who  were  willing  to  be  crooked, 
or  to  profit  from  other  men's  crooked  actions. 
He  soon  announced  this  discovery,  which  natur 
ally  made  such  men  furious  with  him.  They  pur 
sued  him  with  their  hatred  all  his  life.  Some  peo 
ple  really  think  that  great  wealth  makes  crime  re 
spectable,  and  if  it  is  pointed  out  to  a  wealthy  but 
dishonest  man,  that  he  is  merely  a  common  thief, 
and  if  in  addition,  the  fact  is  proved  to  every 
body's  satisfaction,  his  anger  is  noticeable. 

Along  with  his  serious  work  in  the  Assembly, 
Roosevelt  found  that  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
fun  in  listening  to  the  debates  on  the  floor,  or  the 
hearings  in  committees.  One  story,  which  he 
tells,  is  of  two  Irish  Assemblymen,  both  of  whom 
wished  to  be  leader  of  the  minority.  One,  he 
calls  the  "Colonel,"  the  other,  the  "Judge." 
There  was  a  question  being  discussed  of  money 
for  the  Catholic  Protectory,  and  somebody  said 
that  the  bill  was  "  unconstitutional."  Mr.  Roose 
velt  writes : 


IN  POLITICS  23 

The  Judge,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  constitution, 
except  that  it  was  continually  being  quoted  against  all 
of  his  favorite  projects,  fidgetted  about  for  some  time, 
and  at  last  jumped  up  to  know  if  he  might  ask  the 
gentleman  a  question.  The  latter  said  "  Yes,"  and  the 
Judge  went  on,  "  I'd  like  to  know  if  the  gintleman  has 
ever  personally  seen  the  Catholic  Protectoree  ?  "  "  No, 
I  haven't,"  said  his  astonished  opponent.  "Then, 
phwat  do  you  mane  by  talking  about  its  being  uncon- 
stitootional  ?  It's  no  more  unconstitootional  than  you 
are !  "  Then  turning  to  the  house  with  slow  and  with 
ering  sarcasm,  he  added,  "  The  throuble  wid  the  gintle 
man  is  that  he  okkipies  what  lawyers  would  call  a 
kind  of  a  quasi-position  upon  this  bill,"  and  sat  down 
amid  the  applause  of  his  followers. 

His  rival,  the  Colonel,  felt  he  had  gained  altogether 
too  much  glory  from  the  encounter,  and  after  the  non 
plussed  countryman  had  taken  his  seat,  he  stalked  sol 
emnly  over  to  the  desk  of  the  elated  Judge,  looked  at 
him  majestically  for  a  moment,  and  said,  "  You'll  ex 
cuse  my  mentioning,  sorr,  that  the  gintleman  who  has 
just  sat  down  knows  more  law  in  a  wake  than  you  do  in 
a  month ;  and  more  than  that,  Mike  Shaunnessy,  phwat 
do  you  mane  by  quotin'  Latin  on  the  flure  of  this  House, 
when  you  don't  know  the  alpha  and  omayga  of  the  lan 
guage  ! "  and  back  he  walked,  leaving  the  Judge  in  hu 
miliated  submission  behind  him.1 

Another  story  also  relates  to  the  "  Colonel." 
He  was  presiding  at  a  committee  meeting,  in  an 
extremely  dignified  and  severe  state  of  mind.  He 

1 "  American  Ideals,"  p.  93. 


5. 


24  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

usually  came  to  the  meetings  in  this  mood,  as  a 
result  of  having  visited  the  bar,  and  taken  a  num 
ber  of  rye  whiskies.  The  meeting  was  addressed 
by  "  a  great,  burly  man  .  .  .  who  bellowed  as  if 
he  had  been  a  bull  of  Bashan." 

The  Colonel,  by  this  time  pretty  far  gone,  eyed  him 
malevolently,  swaying  to  and  fro  in  his  chair.  How 
ever,  the  first  effect  of  the  fellow's  oratory  was  soothing 
rather  than  otherwise,  and  produced  the  unexpected 
result  of  sending  the  chairman  fast  asleep  bolt  up 
right.  But  in  a  minute  or  two,  as  the  man  warmed  up 
to  his  work,  he  gave  a  peculiar  resonant  howl  which 
waked  the  Colonel  up.  The  latter  came  to  himself  with 

jerk,  looked  fixedly  at  the  audience,  caught  sight  of 

e  speaker,  remembered  having  seen  him  before,  for 
got  that  he  had  been  asleep,  and  concluded  that  it  must 
have  been  on  some  previous  day.  Hammer,  hammer, 
hammer,  went  the  gavel,  and  — 

"  I've  seen  you  before,  sir !  " 

"  You  have  not,"  said  the  man. 

"  Don't  tell  me  I  He,  sir !  "  responded  the  Colonel, 
with  sudden  ferocity.  "  You've  addressed  this  com 
mittee  on  a  previous  day !  " 

"I've  never — "  began  the  man;  but  the  Colonel 
broke  in  again: 

"  Sit  down,  sir !  The  dignity  of  the  chair  must  be 
preserved!  No  man  shall  speak  to  this  committee 
twice.  The  committee  stands  adjourned."  And  with 
that  he  stalked  majestically  out  of  the  room,  leaving 
the  committee  and  the  delegation  to  gaze  sheepishly  into 
each  other's  faces.1 

1  "  American  Ideals,"  p.  96. 


IN  POLITICS  25 

There  was  in  the  Assembly  a  man  whom  Mr. 
Roosevelt  calls  "  Brogan." 

He  looked  like  a  serious  elderly  frog.  I  never  heard 
him  speak  more  than  once.  It  was  before  the  Legis 
lature  was  organized,  or  had  adopted  any  rules;  and 
each  day  the  only  business  was  for  the  clerk  to  call 
the  roll.  One  day  Brogan  suddenly  rose,  and  the  fol 
lowing  dialogue  occurred : 

Brogan.     Misther  Clu-r-r-k ! 

The  Clerk.     The  gentleman  from  New  York. 

Brogan.     I  rise  to  a  point  of  ordher  under  the  rules ! 

The  Clerk.     There  are  no  rules. 

Brogan.     Thin  I  object  to  them. 

The   Clerk.     There   are   no   rules  to   object   to. 

Brogan.  Oh!  (nonplussed;  but  immediately  recover 
ing  himself.)  Thin  I  move  that  they  be  amended  until 
there  ar-r-re ! l 

Roosevelt  was  three  times  elected  to  the  As 
sembly.  He  took  an  interest  in  laws  to  reform 
the  Primaries  and  the  Civil  Service,  and  he  de 
manded  that  a  certain  corrupt  judge  be  removed. 
This  astonished  the  Assembly,  for  the  judge  had 
powerful  and  rich  friends.  His  own  party  ad 
vised  the  twenty-three  years  old  Assemblyman  to 
sit  down  and  shut  his  mouth.  The  judge  might 
be  corrupt,  as  it  was  charged,  but  it  was  "  wiser  " 
to  keep  still  about  it.  Roosevelt,  they  said,  was 
1 "  Autobiography,"  p.  99. 


26  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"  rash  "  and  "  hot-headed  "  to  make  trouble.  And 
they  refused  to  hear  him. 

But  he  got  up  next  day,  and  the  next,  and  the 
next  after  that,  and  demanded  that  the  dishonest 
judge  be  investigated.  And  on  the  eighth  day, 
his  motion  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  104  to  6. 
The  politicians  saw  to  it  that  the  judge  escaped, 
but  it  was  shown  that  Roosevelt's  charges  were 
true  ones.  And  New  York  State  found  that  she 
had  an  Assemblyman  with  a  back-bone. 

Roosevelt  carried  some  bills  for  the  cause  of 
better  government  through  the  Assembly  and  they 
were  signed  by  a  courageous  and  honest  Governor, 
named  Grover  Cleveland.  Thomas  Nast,  Ameri 
ca's  great  cartoonist  of  those  days,  drew  a  car 
toon  of  the  two  men  together.  Cleveland  was 
forty-four  and  Roosevelt  was  twenty-three. 

One  of  the  most  important  events  while  he  was 
in  the  Assembly  arose  from  a  bill  to  regulate  the 
manufacture  of  cigars  in  New  York  City.  He 
had  found  that  cigars  were  often  made  under  the 
most  unhealthy  surroundings  in  the  single  living 
room  of  a  family  in  a  tenement.  In  one  house 
which  he  investigated  himself,  there  were  two 
families,  and  a  boarder,  all  living  in  one  room, 
while  one  or  more  of  the  men  carried  on  the  man 
ufacture  of  cigars  in  the  same  room.  Every 
thing  about  the  place  was  filthy,  and  both  for  the 


IN  POLITICS  27 

health  of  the  families  and  of  the  possible  users 
of  the  cigars,  it  was  necessary  to  have  this  state 
of  affairs  ended. 

He  advocated  a  bill  which  passed,  and  was 
signed  by  Governor  Cleveland,  forbidding  such 
manufacture.  So  far,  so  good;  but  there  were 
persons  who  found  that  the  law  was  against  their 
interests.  They  succeeded  in  getting  the  Court 
of  Appeals  to  set  the  law  aside,  and  in  their 
decision  the  judges  said  the  law  was  an  assault 
upon  the  "hallowed  associations"  of  the  home! 

This  made  Roosevelt  wake  to  the  fact  that 
courts  were  not  always  the  best  judges  of  the 
living  conditions  of  classes  of  people  with  whom 
they  had  no  contact.  They  knew  the  law;  they 
did  not  know  life.  The  decision  blocked  tene 
ment  house  reform  in  New  York  for  twenty 
years,  and  was  one  more  item  in  Roosevelt's 
political  education. 


CHAPTER  IV 

"  RANCH    LIFE    AND    THE    HUNTING    TRAIL  " 

AT  the  end  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  membership  in 
the  New  York  Assembly,  he  began  his  life  on  a 
ranch  in  North  Dakota.  In  this  way  he  not  only 
learned  much  about  the  Western  people,  but  came 
to  know  the  ranchman's  life,  and  to  have  his  first 
chance  to  shoot  big  game. 

He  had  married  Miss  Lee  in  1880,  the  autumn 
of  the  year  he  left  college.  Less  than  four  years 
afterwards  his  wife  died,  following  the  birth  of 
a  daughter.  His  mother  died  on  the  next  day, 
and  Roosevelt  under  the  sorrow  of  these  two 
losses,  left  New  York,  and  spent  almost  all  his 
time  on  his  ranch,  the  Elkhorn,  at  Medora. 

The  people  in  Dakota  looked  on  this  Eastern 
tenderfoot  with  a  little  amusement,  and,  at  first, 
probably  with  some  contempt.  He  was,  to  their 
minds,  a  "  college  dude "  from  the  East,  and 
moreover  he  wore  eyeglasses.  To  some  of  the 
people  whom  he  met,  this  fact,  he  says,  was 
enough  to  cause  distrust.  Eyeglasses  were  under 
suspicion. 

But,  with  two  men  who  had  been  his  guides  in 
28 


"RANCH  LIFE"  29 

Maine,  Bill  Sewall  and  Wilmot  Dow,  he  began 
his  life  as  a  ranchman  and  a  cow-puncher,  and 
went  through  all  the  hard  work  and  all  the  fun. 
He  took  long  rides  after  cattle,  rounded  them  up 
and  helped  in  the  branding.  He  followed  the 
herd  when  it  stampeded  in  a  thunderstorm.  He 
hunted  all  the  game  that  there  was  in  the  county, 
and  also  acted  as  Deputy  Sheriff  and  helped 
clear  the  place  of  horse-thieves  and  "  bad  men." 
In  one  of  his  adventures  Roosevelt  showed  that 
he  had  taken  to  heart  the  celebrated  advice  which, 
in  Hamlet,  Polonius  gives  to  his  son : 

Beware 

Of  entrance  to  a  quarrel,  but  being  in, 
Bear't  that  the  opposed  may  beware  of  thee. 

Mulvaney,  in  one  of  Kipling's  stories,  proved  that 
he  knew  something  about  Shakespeare,  for  he 
put  this  advice  into  his  own  language  so  as  to 
express  the  meaning  perfectly : 

"  Don't  fight  wid  ivry  scutt  for  the  pure  joy  av 
fightin',  but  if  you  do,  knock  the  nose  av  him  first 
an'  frequint." 

Roosevelt  tried  to  keep  out  of  the  fight, —  but 
this  is  the  way  it  happened.  He  was  out  after  lost 
horses,  and  had  to  put  up  at  a  little  hotel  where 
there  were  no  rooms  downstairs,  but  a  bar,  a 


30  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

dining-room  and  a  kitchen.  It  was  late  at  night, 
and  there  was  trouble  on,  for  he  heard  one  or  two 
shots  in  the  bar  as  he  came  up.  He  disliked  the 
idea  of  going  in,  but  it  was  cold  outside  and  there 
was  nowhere  else  to  go.  Inside  the  bar,  a  cheap 
"  bad  man  "  was  walking  up  and  down  with  a 
cocked  revolver  in  each  hand.  He  had  been  shoot 
ing  at  the  clock,  and  making  every  one  unhappy 
and  uncomfortable. 

When  Roosevelt  came  in,  he  called  him  "  Four 
eyes/'  because  he  wore  spectacles,  and  announced 
"  Four  eyes  is  going  to  set  up  the  drinks." 
Roosevelt  tried  to  pass  it  off  by  laughing,  and 
sat  down  behind  the  stove  to  escape  notice,  and 
keep  away  from  trouble.  But  the  "  bad  man  " 
came  and  stood  over  him,  a  gun  in  each  hand, 
using  foul  language,  and  insisting  that  "  Four 
eyes  "  should  get  up  and  treat. 

"  Well,"  Roosevelt  reluctantly  remarked,  "  if 
I've  got  to,  I've  got  to !  "  As  he  said  this,  he  rose 
quickly,  and  hit  the  gun-man  with  his  right  fist  on 
the  point  of  the  jaw,  then  with  his  left,  and  again 
with  his  right.  The  guns  went  off  in  the  air,  as 
the  "  bad  man  "  went  over  like  a  nine-pin,  strik 
ing  his  head  on  the  corner  of  the  bar  as  he  fell. 
Roosevelt  was  ready  to  drop  on  him  if  he  moved, 
for  he  still  clutched  the  revolvers.  But  he  was 
senseless. 


"RANCH  LIFE"  31 

The  other  people  in  the  bar  recovered  their 
nerve,  once  the  man  was  down.  They  hustled 
him  out  into  the  shed,  and  there  was  no  more 
trouble  from  him. 

'Roosevelt  hunted  geese  and  ducks,  deer, 
mountain  sheep,  elk  and  grizzly  bear  during  his 
stay  in  the  West.  It  was  still  possible  to  find 
buffalo,  although  most  of  the  great  herds  had  van 
ished.  The  prairie  was  covered  with  relics  of 
the  dead  buffalo,  so  that  one  might  ride  for 
hundreds  of  miles,  seeing  their  bones  everywhere, 
but  never  getting  a  glimpse  of  a  live  one.  Yet 
he  managed,  after  a  hard  hunt  of  several  days, 
to  shoot  a  great  bull  buffalo. 

An  encounter  with  a  grizzly  bear  is  much  more 
exciting,  and  he  was  nearly  killed  by  one  bear. 
In  later  years  Roosevelt  killed  almost  every  kind 
of  large  and  dangerous  game  that  there  is  on  the 
earth, —  lions,  elephants,  the  African  buffalo,  and 
the  rhinoceros.  The  Indian  tiger  is  perhaps  the 
only  one  of  the  large  savage  animals  which  he 
never  encountered.  Yet  after  meeting  all  these 
and  having  some  close  shaves,  especially  with  a 
wounded  elephant  in  Africa,  he  said  that  his  nar 
rowest  escape  was  with  this  grizzly  bear. 

It  was  when  he  had  returned  to  the  West  and 
was  on  a  hunt  in  Idaho.  He  had  had  trouble 
with  his  guide,  who  got  drunk,  so  they  parted 


32  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

company,  and  Roosevelt  was  alone.  Looking 
down  into  a  valley,  from  a  rocky  ridge,  he  saw  a 
dark  object,  which  he  discovered  was  a  large 
grizzly  bear.  He  fired,  and  the  bear  giving  a 
loud  grunt,  as  the  bullet  struck,  rushed  forward 
at  a  gallop  into  a  laurel  thicket.  Roosevelt 
paused  at  the  edge  of  the  thicket  and  peered 
within,  trying  to  see  the  bear,  but  knowing  too 
much  about  them  to  go  into  the  brush  where  he 
was. 

When  I  was  at  the  narrowest  part  of  the  thicket,  he 
suddenly  left  it,  directly  opposite,  and  then  wheeled  and 
stood  broadside  to  me  on  the  hillside,  a  little  above. 
He  turned  his  head  stiffly  towards  me;  scarlet  strings 
of  froth  hung  from  his  lips;  his  eyes  burned  like 
embers  in  the  gloom. 

I  held  true,  aiming  behind  the  shoulder,  and  my  bullet 
shattered  the  point  or  lower  end  of  his  heart,  taking 
out  a  big  nick.  Instantly  the  great  bear  turned  with 
a  harsh  roar  of  fury  and  challenge,  blowing  the  bloody 
foam  from  his  mouth,  so  that  I  saw  the  gleam  of  his 
white  fangs;  and  then  he  charged  straight  at  me, 
crashing  and  bounding  through  the  laurel  bushes,  so 
that  it  was  hard  to  aim.  I  waited  until  he  came  to  a 
fallen  tree,  raking  him  as  he  topped  it  with  a  ball, 
which  entered  his  chest  and  went  through  the  cavity 
of  his  body,  but  he  neither  swerved  nor  flinched,  and 
at  the  moment  I  did  not  know  that  I  had  struck  him. 
He  came  steadily  on,  and  in  another  second  was  almost 
upon  me.  I  fired  for  his  forehead,  but  my  bullet  went 


Courtesy  of  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 

THEODORE    ROOSEVELT    WHEN    ABOUT 
1O   YEARS    OLD 


"  RANCH  LIFE  "  33 

low,  entering  his  open  mouth,  smashing  his  lower  jaw 
and  going  into  the  neck.  I  leaped  to  one  side  almost 
as  I  pulled  the  trigger ;  and  through  the  hanging  smoke 
the  first  thing  I  saw  was  his  paw  as  he  made  a  vicious 
side  blow  at  me.  The  rush  of  his  charge  carried  him 
past.  As  he  struck  he  lurched  forward,  leaving  a  pool 
of  bright  blood  where  his  muzzle  hit  the  ground;  but 
he  recovered  himself  and  made  two  or  three  jumps 
onwards,  while  I  hurriedly  jammed  a  couple  of  cart 
ridges  into  the  magazine,  my  rifle  holding;  only  four,  all 
of  which  I  had  fired.  Then  he  tried  to  pull  up,  but  as 
he  did  so  his  muscles  seemed  suddenly  to  give  way,  his 
head  drooped,  and  he  rolled  over  and  over  like  a  shot 
rabbit.  Each  of  my  first  three  bullets  had  inflicted  a 
mortal  wound.1 

There  were,  once,  near  Mr.  Roosevelt's  ranch, 
three  men  who  had  been  suspected  of  cattle-killing 
and  horse-stealing.  The  leader  was  a  tall  fellow 
named  Finnegan,  who  had  long  red  hair  reaching 
to  his  shoulders,  and  always  wore  a  broad  hat 
and  a  fringed  buckskin  shirt.  He  had  been  in  a 
number  of  shooting  scrapes.  The  others  were  a 
half-breed,  and  a  German,  who  was  weak  and 
shiftless  rather  than  actively  bad.  They  had  a 
bad  reputation,  and  were  trying  to  get  out  of  the 
country  before  the  Vigilance  Committee  got  them. 

About  the  only  way  to  travel  —  it  was  early  in 
March  and  the  rivers  were  swollen  —  was  by 

1 "  The  Wilderness  Hunter,"  pp.  305-6. 


34  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

boat  down  the  river.  So  when  the  cowboys  on 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  ranch  found  that  his  boat  was 
stolen,  they  were  sure  who  had  taken  it.  As  it 
is  every  man's  duty  in  a  half-settled  country  to 
bring  law-breakers  to  justice,  and  as  Roosevelt 
was,  moreover,  Deputy  Sheriff,  he  decided  to  go 
after  the  three  thieves.  Two  of  his  cow-boys, 
Sewall  and  Dow  from  Maine,  in  about  three  days 
built  another  boat.  In  this,  with  their  rifles,  food 
enough  for  two  weeks,  warm  bedding  and  thick 
clothes,  Roosevelt,  Sewall  and  Dow  set  out  down 
the  Little  Missouri  River. 

There  had  been  a  blizzard,  the  weather  was  still 
bitterly  cold,  and  the  river  full  of  drifting  ice. 
They  shot  prairie  fowl  and  lived  on  them,  with 
bacon,  bread  and  tea.  It  was  cold  work  poling 
and  paddling  down  the  river,  with  the  current, 
but  against  a  head  wind.  The  ice  froze  on  the 
pole  handles.  At  night  where  they  camped  the 
thermometer  went  down  to  zero.  Next  day  they 
shot  two  deer,  for  they  needed  meat,  as  they  were 
doing  such  hard  work  in  the  cold. 

On  the  third  day  they  sighted  smoke, —  the 
camp-fire  of  the  three  thieves.  Two  boats,  one 
of  them  the  stolen  one,  were  tied  up  to  the  bank. 
It  was  an  exciting  moment,  for  they  expected  a 
fight.  As  it  turned  out,  however,  it  was  a  tough 
job,  but  not  a  fighting  one.  The  German  was 


"  RANCH  LIFE  "  35 

alone  in  camp,  and  they  captured  him  without 
trouble.  The  other  two  were  out  hunting. 
When  they  came  back  an  hour  or  two  later,  they 
were  surprised  by  the  order  to  hold  up  their 
hands.  The  half-breed  obeyed  at  once,  Finni- 
gan  hesitated  until  Roosevelt  walked  in  close, 
covering  him  with  a  rifle,  and  repeated  the  com 
mand.  Then  he  gave  up. 

But  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  a  long, 
hard  task.  It  was  often  the  way  to  shoot  such 
men  at  once,  but  Sheriff  Roosevelt  did  not  like 
that.  He  was  going  to  bring  them  back  to  jail. 
At  night  the  thieves  could  not  be  tied  up,  as  they 
would  freeze  to  death.  So  Roosevelt,  Sewall  and 
Dow  had  to  take  turns  in  watching  them  at  night. 
After  they  started  down  river  again,  they  found 
the  river  blocked  by  ice,  and  had  to  camp  out  for 
eight  days  in  freezing  weather.  The  food  all  but 
gave  out,  and  at  last  there  was  nothing  left  but 
flour.  Bread  made  out  of  flour  and  muddy  water 
and  nothing  else,  is  not,  says  Mr.  Roosevelt,  good 
eating  for  a  steady  diet.  Besides  they  had  to  be 
careful  of  meeting  a  band  of  Sioux  Indians,  who 
were  known  to  be  in  the  region. 

At  last  they  worked  back  to  a  ranch,  borrowed 
a  pony,  on  which  Roosevelt  rode  up  into  the 
mountains  to  a  place  where  there  was  a  wagon. 
He  hired  this,  with  two  broncos  and  a  driver. 


36  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Sewall  and  Dow  took  the  boats  down  the  river, 
while  Roosevelt  set  out  on  a  journey  which  took 
two  days  and  a  night,  walking  behind  the  wagon, 
and  guarding  the  three  men.  The  driver  of  the 
wagon  was  a  stranger. 

At  night  they  put  up  at  a  frontier  hut,  and  the 
Deputy  Sheriff  had  to  sit  up  all  night  to  be  sure 
the  three  prisoners  did  not  escape.  When  he 
reached  the  little  town  of  Dickinson,  and  handed 
the  men  over  to  the  Sheriff,  he  had  traveled  over 
three  hundred  miles.  He  had  brought  three  out 
laws  to  justice,  and  done  something  for  the  cause 
of  better  government  in  the  country  where  he 
lived. 


I 


CHAPTER  V 

TWO   DEFEATS 

ALTHOUGH  he  was  still  under  twenty-five  when  he 
left  the  New  York  Assembly,  Roosevelt  was  fav 
orably  known  throughout  the  State.  He  had 
been  heard  of,  by  those  who  keep  up  with  politics, 
all  over  the  country.  In  1884,  the  year  of  a 
Presidential  election,  he  was  one  of  the  four  dele- 
gates-at-large  from  New  York  to  the  Republican 
convention  at  Chicago.  The  leader  for  the  Pres 
idential  nomination  was  James  G.  Elaine,  a  bril 
liant  man  who  had  many  warm  admirers.  Also, 
there  were  many  in  his  own  party,  who  distrusted 
him,  who  thought  that  in  the  past  he  had  not  been 
strictly  honest.  Good  men  differed  on  this  ques 
tion  and  differ  still. 

Roosevelt  favored  Senator  Edmunds  of  Ver 
mont,  but  he  had  agreed  beforehand,  with  other 
young  Republican  delegates,  that  they  would  sup 
port  for  the  election  the  man  named  by  the  con 
vention.  Since,  in  later  years,  Roosevelt  refused 
to  abide  by  the  decision  of  a  party  convention, 
and  led  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  "  bolts  "  in 

37 


38  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  history  of  American  politics,  it  is  important  to 
consider  for  a  moment  the  question  of  political 
parties  and  the  attitude  a  man  may  take  toward 
them. 

Because  parties  are  responsible  for  a  good  many 
small,  mean,  and  sometimes  dishonorable  acts,  we 
often  hear  parties  and  partisanship  denounced. 
People  express  the  wish  that  there  might  be  an  end 
to  "  party  politics  "  and  to  "  partisanship/'  and 
that  "  all  good  men  might  get  together  "  for  the 
good  of  the  whole  country.  This  may  happen 
when  there  is  Heaven  on  earth,  but  not  before. 
Even  the  good  and  honest  men  continue  to  differ 
about  which  is  the  wisest  way  to  do  things,  and  so 
the  people  who  think  the  same  way  about  most 
matters  get  together  in  a  party.  The  suggestion, 
by  the  way,  that  people  should  give  up  "  partisan 
ship  "  often  comes  from  people  who  do  not  by  any 
means  intend  to  give  up  their  own  partisanship, — 
they  wish  other  folk  to  come  over  to  their  own 
way  of  thinking.  We  are  all  apt  to  wish  that 
others  would  only  be  reasonable  enough  to  agree 
with  us. 

Nor  is  it  at  all  sure  that  everything  would  be 
fine  if  there  were  no  parties.  Countries  which 
have  tried  to  do  without  parties,  have  not  made  a 
great  success  of  it.  There  must  be  some  organ 
ized  group  to  hold  responsible  if  men  in  office  do 


TWO  DEFEATS  39 

badly;  some  people  to  warn  that  the  things  they 
are  doing  are  not  approved  by  the  majority  of  the 
people. 

With  parties  in  existence,  as  they  have  been  for 
almost  all  of  our  history  as  a  nation,  there  are  in 
the  main,  four  ways  in  which  a  man  may  act 
toward  them.  He  may  be  a  hidebound  party  man, 
always  voting  the  party  ticket,  and  swallowing  the 
party  platforms  whole.  Such  persons  often  get 
into  the  newspapers  when  they  are  elderly,  as  hav 
ing  voted  for  every  candidate  on  this  or  that  party 
ticket  for  fifty  or  sixty  or  seventy  years.  It 
simply  means,  of  course,  that  these  men  are  proud 
of  the  fact  that  they  let  other  people  do  their  think 
ing  for  them. 

Or,  a  man  may  look  upon  a  party  as  the  means 
through  which  he  may  secure  better  government. 
He  is  proud  of  its  wise  and  good  acts,  and  is  will 
ing  to  forgive  its  mistakes,  because  he  knows  that 
no  large  group  of  men  can  be  perfect.  He  be 
lieves  in  remaining  loyal  to  his  party  as  long  as 
possible,  but  he  does  not  set  it  above  his  country, 
nor  agree  to  follow  it  when  it  goes  absolutely 
wrong,  or  falls  into  the  hands  of  men  who  hold 
party  welfare  above  patriotism.  Roosevelt  was  a 
party  man  of  this  kind. 

Furthermore,  a  man  may  be  an  Independent, 
one  who  will  not  join  any  party  for  long.  Many 


40  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  these  are  highly  honorable  and  wise  citizens, 
who  are  of  great  value  to  the  country,  although 
they  can  usually  be  nothing  but  helpers  in  any 
good  cause.  Their  position  nearly  always  pre 
vents  their  becoming  the  chief  actors  in  bringing 
about  any  good  and  desirable  reform. 

The  fourth  class  in  which  a  man  may  find  him 
self  in  regard  to  parties,  is  that  of  the  so-called  in 
dependent,  wrho  mistakes  his  own  fussiness  for 
nobility  of  character.  He  can  find  fault  with 
everybody  and  every  party,  but  he  can  be  loyal  to 
none.  He  is  strong  on  leaving  a  party  for  the 
smallest  excuse ;  never  on  staying  with  it.  It  is  as 
if  a  member  of  a  foot-ball  team,  half  an  hour  be 
fore  the  game,  should  refuse  to  play,  because  some 
other  member  of  the  team  had  once  cheated  in  an 
examination.  He  satisfies  his  own  conscience,  but 
he  fails  in  the  loyalty  he  owes  to  the  team  and  its 
friends. 

At  the  convention  in  1884  Roosevelt  took  an 
important  part  for  so  young  a  man.  He  made 
speeches  and  worked  for  Senator  Edmunds,  but 
Mr.  Elaine  was  nominated.  This  caused  a  split 
in  the  party,  and  many  of  its  members  joined  the 
Democrats.  They  were  called  by  their  opponents 
"  Mugwumps,"  and  since  they  believed  they  were 
acting  for  the  best,  they  did  not  mind  being  called 
that  or  any  other  name. 


TWO  DEFEATS  41 

So  many  prominent  and  able  Republicans  joined 
the  Mugwumps  it  is  sometimes  forgotten  that 
many  more  equally  good  and  wise  Republicans  re 
fused  to  "  bolt,"  but  stayed  with  the  party  and 
voted  for  Mr.  Elaine.  Either  they  did  not  at  all 
believe  the  charges  which  had  been  made  against 
him  —  and  it  is  as  impossible  now  as  it  was  then 
to  prove  the  charges  —  or  else  they  thought  that 
the  country  would  be  far  worse  off  with  the  Demo 
cratic  party  in  power  than  with  the  Republicans 
successful. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  was  disgusted  with  the  result  of 
the  convention,  but  did  not  believe  that  he  was 
justified  in  leaving  the  party.  He  therefore 
stayed  in  it,  and  supported  Mr.  Elaine. 

The  Democrats  nominated  the  courageous  Gov 
ernor  of  New  York,  Grover  Cleveland.  Both  be 
fore  and  after  this,  he  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  worked 
together  for  measures  of  good  government,  and 
respected  each  other,  while  belonging  to  different 
parties.  The  presidential  election  turned  out  to 
be  close,  and  in  the  end  several  incidents  besides 
the  split  in  the  Republican  party  worked  against 
Elaine.  He  was  narrowly  defeated.  The  change 
of  a  few  hundred  votes  in  the  State  of  New  York 
would  have  made  Elaine  the  President.  As  in 
later  years  large  election  frauds  were  discovered  to 
have  been  going  on  in  New  York,  some  people 


42  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

contend  with  good  show  of  reason,  that  Elaine 
and  not  Cleveland  was  really  the  choice  of  the 
voters. 

Two  years  after  this,  in  1886,  when  Roosevelt 
was  on  his  Dakota  ranch,  the  Republicans  nomin 
ated  him  for  Mayor  of  New  York  City.  He  was 
about  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  it  is  evident  that 
he  had  made  a  mark  in  politics.  He  came  East, 
accepted  the  nomination,  and  made  the  campaign. 

The  opponents  were,  first,  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  a 
respectable  candidate  nominated  by  Tammany 
Hall  in  its  customary  fashion  of  offering  a  good 
man,  now  and  then,  to  pull  the  wool  over  the  eyes 
of  persons  who  naturally  need  some  excuse  for 
voting  to  put  New  York  into  the  hands  of  the 
political  organization  whose  existence  has  always 
been  one  of  America's  greatest  disgraces. 

The  other  candidate  was  Henry  George,  a  man 
of  high  character,  nominated  by  the  United  Labor 
Party.  Mr.  Hewitt  was  elected,  with  Mr.  George 
second  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  third. 

About  a  month  after  the  election,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
went  to  England,  where  he  married  Miss  Edith 
Kermit  Carow,  of  New  York.  She  had  been  his 
friend  and  playmate  when  he  was  a  boy,  and  was 
his  sister's  friend.  The  groomsman  was  a  young 
Englishman,  Mr.  Cecil  Spring-Rice.  Years  later 
the  groom  and  his  "  best  man  "  came  together 


TWO  DEFEATS  43 

again  in  Washington,  when  the  American  was 
President  Roosevelt,  and  the  Englishman  was  Sir 
Cecil  Spring-Rice,  the  British  Ambassador  to  the 
United  States. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FIGHTING   OFFICE-SEEKERS 

To  tell  the  story  of  Roosevelt's  life  it  is  necessary 
to  talk  much  about  politics,  and  that  to  some 
people  is  a  dull  subject.  But  he  was  in  political 
office  over  twenty  years  of  his  life,  always  inter 
ested  and  active  in  politics,  and  the  vigor  which  he 
brought  to  his  duties  made  public  affairs  attractive 
to  thousands  of  Americans  who  had  felt  little  con 
cern  about  them. 

This  alone  was  a  great  service.  If  a  man  is 
going  the  wrong  way  in  political  life,  if  he  is  try 
ing  to  do  unwise  or  evil  things,  he  is  a  danger,  but 
a  danger  which  may  be  corrected.  He  may  be 
made  to  turn  his  efforts  in  useful  directions.  But 
the  man  who  takes  no  interest  at  all  in  the  gov 
ernment  of  his  city,  state  or  nation,  who  is  so 
feeble  that  he  cannot  even  take  the  time  to  vote  on 
election  day,  but  goes  hunting  or  fishing  instead, 
—  this  man  is  a  hopeless  nuisance,  who  does  not 
deserve  the  liberty  which  he  enjoys,  nor  the  pro 
tection  which  his  government  gives  him. 

Politics,  when  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  active,  were 
44 


FIGHTING  OFFICE-SEEKERS        45 

not  dull.  Few  men  have  ever  made  them  so  lively 
and  interesting.  Every  activity  in  life  meant 
something  to  him,  a  chance  for  useful  work  or  for 
good  fun.  He  had  a  perfectly  "  corking  time," 
he  said,  when  he  was  President,  and  the  words 
shocked  a  number  of  good  people  who  had  par 
doned  or  overlooked  dirty  actions  by  other  public 
men,  so  long  as  these  other  men  kept  up  a  certain 
copy-book  behavior  which  they  thought  was 
"  dignity." 

It  is  a  question  if  any  man  ever  had  a  better 
time,  ever  had  more  real  fun  in  his  life,  than  did 
Mr.  Roosevelt.  In  spite  of  the  hard  work  he  put 
in,  in  spite  of  long  days  and  weeks  of  drudgery  he 
knew  how  to  get  happiness  out  of  every  minute. 
He  did  not  engage  in  drinking  and  gambling  for 
his  amusements.  He  did  not  adopt  a  priggish 
attitude  on  these  matters, —  he  simply  knew  that 
there  were  other  things  which  were  better  sport. 
He  was  a  religious  man,  a  member  all  his  life  of 
his  father's  church,  but  religion  did  not  sour  him, 
make  him  gloomy,  or  cause  him  to  interfere  with 
other  people  about  their  belief  or  lack  of  it. 

He  got  an  immense  amount  of  pleasure  in  his 
family  life,  in  half  a  dozen  kinds  of  athletic  sports, 
especially  the  ones  which  led  him  outdoors,  and  in 
books.  In  these  things  he  was  marvelously  wise 
or  marvelously  fortunate.  Some  men's  lives  are 


46  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

spent  indoors,  in  an  office  or  in  a  study  among 
books.  Their  amusements  are  indoor  games,  and 
they  come  to  despise  or  secretly  to  envy,  the  more 
fortunate  men  who  live  outdoors. 

Some  of  the  outdoors  men,  on  the  other  hand, 
become  almost  as  one-sided.  Knowing  nothing 
of  the  good  fun  that  is  in  books  they  deny  them 
selves  much  pleasure,  and  take  refuge  in  calling 
"  high-brows  "  the  men  who  have  simply  more 
common  sense  and  capacity  for  enjoyment  than 
themselves. 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  more  than  most  men  of  his  time, 
certainly  more  than  any  other  public  man,  could 
enjoy  to  the  utmost  the  best  things  the  world  has 
in  it.  He  knew  the  joy  of  the  hard  and  active  life 
in  the  open,  and  he  knew  the  keen  pleasure  of 
books.  So  when  he  returned  to  America  after  his 
marriage  in  1886,  he  built  a  house  on  Sagamore 
Hill  at  Oyster  Bay  on  Long  Island.  Here  he 
could  ride,  shoot,  row,  look  after  his  farm,  and 
here  in  the  next  year  or  two  he  wrote  two  books. 
One  was  the  life  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  American 
minister  to  France  in  the  early  years  of  our  na 
tion;  the  other  a  life  of  Senator  Thomas  H.  Ben- 
ton  of  Missouri. 

But  he  was  not  long  to  stay  out  of  political 
office.  In  1888  President  Cleveland  had  been  de 
feated  for  reelection  by  the  Republican  candidate, 


FIGHTING  OFFICE-SEEKERS        47 

Benjamin  Harrison.  The  new  President  appoint 
ed  Mr.  Roosevelt  as  one  of  the  Civil  Service  Com 
missioners,  with  his  office  in  Washington. 

Most  politicians  are  charged,  certainly  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  sometimes  charged,  with  being  a 
selfish  seeker  after  personal  advancement.  There 
is  not  much  on  which  to  base  this  argument  in 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  acceptance  of  this  office.  For  the 
man  who  is  looking  out  merely  for  his  own  ambi 
tions,  for  his  own  success  in  politics,  is  careful  of 
the  position  he  takes,  careful  to  keep  out  of  offices 
where  there  are  many  chances  to  make  enemies. 
The  Civil  Service  Commission  was,  of  all  places 
at  that  time,  the  last  where  a  selfish  politician 
would  like  to  be.  Nobody  could  do  his  duties 
there  and  avoid  making  enemies.  It  was  a  thank 
less  job,  consisting  of  trying  to  protect  the  public 
interests  against  a  swarm  of  office-seekers  and 
their  friends  in  Congress. 

It  is  ridiculous  now  to  remember  what  a  fight 
had  to  be  waged  to  set  up  the  merit  system  of  the 
Civil  Service  in  this  country.  The  old  system, 
by  which  a  good  public  servant  was  turned  out  to 
make  room  for  a  hungry  office-seeker  of  the  suc 
cessful  political  party,  was  firmly  established. 
Men  and  women  were  not  appointed  to  office  be 
cause  they  knew  anything  about  the  work  they 
were  to  do,  but  because  they  were  cousins  of  a 


48  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Congressman's  wife,  or  political  heelers  who  had 
helped  to  get  the  Congressman  elected.  Nobody 
thought  of  the  offices  as  places  where,  for  the  good 
of  the  whole  country,  it  was  necessary  to  have 
the  best  men.  Instead,  the  offices  were  looked  on 
as  delicious  slices  of  pie  to  be  grabbed  and  de 
voured  by  the  greediest  and  strongest  person  in 
sight. 

The  Civil  Service  Commission,  when  Mr. 
Roosevelt  became  a  member,  had  been  established 
by  Congress,  but  it  was  hated  and  opposed  by 
Congress  and  the  Commission  was  still  fought, 
secretly  or  openly.  Congressmen  tried  to  ridi 
cule  it,  to  hamper  it  by  denials  of  money,  and  to 
overrule  it  in  every  possible  way.  A  powerful 
Republican  Congressman  and  a  powerful  Demo 
cratic  Senator  tried  to  browbeat  Roosevelt,  and 
were  both  caught  by  him  in  particularly  mean  lies. 
Naturally  they  did  not  enjoy  the  experience. 

At  the  end  of  his  term,  President  Harrison  was 
defeated  by  Mr.  Cleveland,  who  came  back  again 
to  the  Presidency.  He  re-appointed  Mr.  Roose 
velt,  who  thus  spent  six  years  in  the  Commission. 
When  he  retired  he  had  made  a  good  many 
enemies  among  the  crooked  politicians,  and  some 
friends  and  admirers  among  well-informed  men 
who  watch  the  progress  of  good  government. 
He  was  still  unknown  to  the  great  body  of  cit- 


MR.  ROOSEVELT  AS  A  HUNTER  IN  HIS  RANCHING   DAYS 


FIGHTING  OFFICE-SEEKERS        49 

izens  throughout  the  country,   although  he  had 
been  fighting  their  fight  for  six  years. 

He  went  from  Washington  to  accept  another 
thankless  and  still  more  difficult  position  in  New 
York  City.  It  was  one  which  had  been  fatal  to 
political  ambitions,  and  was  almost  certain  to  end 
the  career  of  any  man  who  accepted  it.  This  was 
the  Presidency  of  the  Board  of  Police  Commis 
sioners. 


CHAPTER  VII 

POLICE   COMMISSIONER 

EXPERIENCED  politicians  always  warn  young  men 
who  wish  to  rise  in  politics,  who  wish  to  hold  high 
office  in  the  state  or  national  government,  to  keep 
out  of  city  politics.  It  is  a  grave-yard  for  reputa 
tions,  and  it  was  that  in  1895,  when  Roosevelt 
took  charge  of  the  New  York  Police,  even  more 
than  to-day. 

Between  the  unreasonable  reformers,  who  ex 
pect  perfection,  arrived  at  in  their  own  way ;  the 
sensible  folk  who  demand  an  honest  government ; 
the  lax  and  easy-going  people  who  do  not  care 
how  much  rottenness  there  is  about,  so  that  it  is 
kept  partly  covered  up  (and  this  is  one  of  the 
largest  classes)  and  the  plain  criminals  who  are 
out  for  graft  and  plunder,  the  city  office-holder  is 
torn  in  a  dozen  ways  at  once. 

If  he  is  dishonest  or  weak,  he  goes  under  im 
mediately.  If  he  is  honest,  but  lacking  in  perfect 
courage,  he  is  nearly  useless.  And  if  he  is  both 
honest  and  brave,  but  has  not  good  brains,  is  not 
able  to  use  his  mind  quickly  and  well,  he  is  either 

50 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER  51 

helpless,  or  soon  placed  in  a  position  where  he 
seems  to  have  been  dishonorable.  For,  of  course 
the  first  method  which  a  crooked  man  uses  to  de 
stroy  his  honest  opponent,  is  to  try  to  make  him 
look  crooked,  too.  Often  during  his  life  Roose 
velt  insisted  upon  the  fact  that  a  man  in  public 
life  must  not  only  be  honest,  but  that  he  must 
have  a  back-bone  and  a  good  head  into  the  bar 
gain. 

Nothing  but  a  sense  of  public  duty,  nothing  but 
a  desire  to  help  the  cause  of  better  government, 
could  have  made  a  man  take  the  Police  Commis- 
sionership  in  1895.  Mayor  Strong,  on  a  Reform 
ticket,  had  beaten  Tammany  Hall.  He  wanted  an 
able  and  energetic  man  and  so  sent  for  Roosevelt. 
The  condition  of  the  Police  Department  sounds 
more  like  a  chapter  from  a  dime  novel  gone  mad, 
than  from  any  real  state  of  things  which  could 
exist  in  a  modern  city.  Yet  it  did  exist. 

The  police  were  supposed  to  protect  the  city 
against  crime.  What  they  really  did  was  to  stop 
some  of  the  crime  —  when  the  criminal  had  no 
"  pull  "—and  to  protect  the  rest  of  it.  The 
criminal  handed  over  a  certain  amount  of  his 
plunder  to  the  police,  and  they  let  him  go  on  with 
his  crime.  More  than  that,  they  saw  that  no  one 
bothered  him.  There  was  a  regular  scale  of 
prices  for  things  varying  all  the  way  from  serious 


52  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

crime  down  to  small  offenses.  It  cost  more  to 
be  a  highway  robber,  burglar,  gun-man  or  mur 
derer,  for  instance,  than  merely  to  keep  a  saloon 
open  after  the  legal  time  for  closing.  A  man  had 
to  pay  more  for  running  a  big  gambling-house, 
than  simply  for  blocking  the  side-walk  with  rub 
bish  and  ash-cans. 

Roosevelt  found  that  most  of  the  policemen 
were  honest,  or  wished  to  be  honest.  But,  sur 
rounded  as  they  were  by  grafters,  it  was  almost 
impossible  for  a  man  to  keep  straight.  If  he  be 
gan  by  accepting  little  bribes,  he  ended,  as  he  rose 
in  power,  by  taking  big  ones,  and  finally  he  was  in 
partnership  with  the  chief  rascals.  The  hideous 
system  organized  by  the  powerful  men  in  Tam 
many  Hall  spread  outward  and  downward,  and  at 
last  all  over  the  city.  Roosevelt  did  not  stop  all 
the  crime,  of  course,  nor  leave  the  city  spotless 
when  he  ended  his  two  years  service.  But  he  did 
make  it  possible  for  one  of  his  chief  opponents, 
one  of  the  severest  of  all  critics,  Mr.  Godkin,  a 
newspaper  editor,  to  write  him,  at  the  end  of  his 
term  of  office: 

"  In  New  York  you  are  doing  the  greatest  work  of 
which  any  American  to-day  is  capable,  and  exhibiting 
to  the  young  men  of  the  country  the  spectacle  of  a 
very  important  office  administered  by  a  man  of  high 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER  53 

character  in  the  most  efficient  way  amid  a  thousand 
difficulties.  As  a  lesson  in  politics,  I  cannot  think  of 
anything  more  instructive."  * 

How  did  he  do  this?  First,  he  tried  to  keep 
politics  out  of  the  police- force, —  to  appoint  men 
because  they  would  make  good  officers,  not  be 
cause  they  were  Republicans  or  Democrats. 
Next,  he  tried  to  reward  and  promote  policemen 
who  had  proved  themselves  brave, —  who  had 
saved  people  in  burning  houses  or  from  drowning, 
or  had  arrested  violent  men  at  great  danger  to 
themselves.  This  is  commonly  done  in  the  New 
York  Police  Department  to-day :  it  was  not  so 
common  before  1895.  Roosevelt  and  his  fellow 
commissioners  found  one  old  policeman  who  had 
saved  twenty-five  people  from  drowning  and  two 
or  three  from  burning  buildings.  They  gave  him 
his  first  promotion.  He  began  to  have  the  De 
partment  pay  for  a  policeman's  uniform  when  it 
was  torn  in  making  an  arrest  or  otherwise  ruined 
in  the  performance  of  duty.  Before,  the  police 
man  had  had  to  pay  for  a  new  uniform  himself. 
He  had  each  policeman  trained  to  use  a  pistol,  so 
that  if  he  had  to  fire  it  at  a  criminal,  he  would  hit 
the  criminal,  and  not  somebody  else.  He  did  his 
best  to  stop  the  custom  of  selling  beer  and  whiskey 

1  Thayer,  "  Theodore  Roosevelt,"  p.  106. 


54  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  children.  Finally  he  stopped  disrespect  for 
law  by  having  law  enforced,  whether  people  liked 
it  or  not. 

Of  course,  this  got  him  into  hot  water.  One  of 
our  worst  faults  in  America  lies  in  passing  a  tre 
mendous  number  of  laws,  and  then  letting  them  be 
broken.  In  many  instances  the  worst  troubles  are 
with  laws  about  strong  drink.  People  in  the  State, 
outside  of  New  York  City,  and  some  of  those  in 
the  City,  wished  to  have  a  law  to  close  the  saloons 
on  Sunday.  So  they  passed  it.  But  so  few  peo 
ple  in  the  City  really  wished  such  a  law,  so  many 
of  them  wished  to  drink  on  Sunday,  that  the 
saloons  stayed  open,  and  the  saloon-keepers  paid 
bribes  to  the  police  for  "  protection."  The  result 
was  not  temperance,  but  the  opposite.  Moreover 
it  led  to  disrespect  for  the  law,  and  corruption  for 
the  police.  It  was  not  Commissioner  Roosevelt's 
business  whether  the  law  was  a  wise  one  or  not, 
but  it  was  his  business  to  enforce  it. 

He  enforced  it,  and  had  the  saloons  closed.  As 
he  said :  "  The  howl  that  rose  was  deafening.  The 
professional  politicians  raved.  The  yellow-press 
surpassed  themselves  in  clamor  and  mendacity. 
A  favorite  assertion  was  that  I  was  enforcing  a 
'  blue  law,'  an  obsolete  law  that  had  never  before 
been  enforced.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  was  en- 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER  55 

forcing  honestly  a  law  that  had  hitherto  been  en 
forced  dishonestly."  l 

In  the  end,  those  who  wished  to  drink  on  Sun 
days  found  a  way  to  do  it,  and  the  law  intended 
to  regulate  drinking  habits  failed,  as  such  laws 
nearly  always  have  done.  A  judge  decided  that 
as  drink  could  be  served  with  meals,  a  man  need 
only  eat  one  sandwich  or  a  pretzel  and  he  could 
then  drink  seventeen  beers,  or  as  many  as  he  liked. 
But  the  result  of  Roosevelt's  action  had  nearly 
stopped  bribe-giving  to  the  police.  So  there  was 
something  gained. 

Roosevelt  went  about  the  city  at  night,  some 
times  alone,  sometimes  with  his  friend  Jacob  Riis, 
a  reporter  who  knew  about  police  work  and  the 
slum  districts  of  the  city.  If  he  caught  police 
men  off  their  beat,  they  were  ordered  to  report  at 
his  office  in  the  morning  and  explain.  When  his 
friends  were  dancing  at  fashionable  balls,  he  was 
apt  to  be  looking  after  the  police  outside. 

From  about  this  time,  Roosevelt  began  to  be 
known  all  over  the  United  States.  He  had  been 
heard  of  ever  since  he  was  in  the  Assembly,  but 
only  by  those  who  follow  politics  closely.  Now, 
New  York  newspapers,  with  their  cartoons,  began 
to  make  him  celebrated  everywhere.  The  fact 

-"Autobiography,"  p.  210. 


56  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

that  when  he  spoke  emphatically,  he  showed  his 
teeth  for  an  instant,  was  enlarged  upon  in  pictures 
and  in  newspaper  articles,  and  it  became  connected 
with  him  henceforth. 

We  demand  amusing  newspapers;  we  like  the 
fun  in  every  subject  brought  out  as  no  other  na 
tion  does.  And  we  get  it.  Our  newspapers  are 
by  far  the  brightest  and  most  readable  in  the 
world.  But  we  have  to  pay  for  it,  and  we  often 
pay  by  having  the  real  truth  concealed  from  us  in 
a  mass  of  comedy.  Newspapers  seize  upon  a  man 
or  woman  who  has  something  amusing  in  his  life, 
manner,  or  speech,  and  play  upon  that  peculiarity 
until  at  last  the  true  character  of  the  person  is 
hidden. 

This  happened  with  Roosevelt.  About  the  time 
of  his  Police  Commissionership-,  the  newspaper 
writers  and  artists  began  to  invent  a  grotesque  and 
amusing  character  called  "  Teddy,"  who  was  for 
ever  snapping  his  teeth,  shouting  "  Bully !  "  or 
rushing  at  everybody,  flourishing  a  big  stick. 
This  continued  for  years  and  was  taken  for  truth 
by  a  great  many  people.  To  this  day,  this  imag 
inary  person  is  believed  in  by  thousands.  And  in 
the  meantime,  the  genuine  man,  a  brave  high- 
minded  American,  loving  his  country  ardently, 
and  serving  her  to  the  utmost  of  his  great  strength 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER  57 

and  ability,  was  engaged  in  his  work,  known  by 
all  who  had  personal  contact  with  him  to  be  stern 
indeed  against  evil-doers,  but  tender  and  gentle  to 
the  unfortunate,  to  women  and  children  and  to 
animals. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   ROUGH    RIDER 

IN  1897  the  Republican  Party  came  again  into 
power;  Mr.  McKinley  was  inaugurated  as  Presi 
dent.  Roosevelt  was  appointed  Assistant  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy,  and  ca?me  with  his  family  to 
Washington.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was 
Mr.  John  D.  Long. 

America  was  within  a  year  of  getting  into  war, 
and  as  usual  was  not  ready  for  it.  There  are  men 
so  foolish  as  to  rejoice  because  we  have  never  been 
ready  for  the  wars  in  which  we  have  taken  part 
about  every  twenty  or  thirty  years  in  our  history. 
This  simply  means  that  they  rejoice  at  the  un 
necessary  deaths  of  thousands  of  other  Americans 
who  die  from  disease  in  camp,  or  are  killed  in  the 
field  through  neglect  to  prepare  in  advance. 
Preparation  for  war  is  not  wholly  the  matter  of 
having  weapons  ready  to  fight  the  enemy.  It  also 
means  healthy  camps  for  our  soldiers  to  live  in, 
and  readiness  to  furnish  clothing,  food  and  med 
ical  supplies.  For  lack  of  these,  thousands  of  our 

58 


THE  ROUGH  RIDER  59 

friends  and  relatives  die  in  every  war  we  are  in. 

A  rebellion  had  been  going  on  in  Cuba  for  years. 
The  cruel  government  of  Spain  had  kept  the 
Cubans  in  misery  and  in  rebellion,  and  disturbed 
the  friendship  between  Spain  and  the  United 
States.  It  was  our  duty  to  see  that  Cuban  expe 
ditions  did  not  sail  from  our  coast  to  help  their 
friends,  and  in  this  work  a  great  many  ships  of 
our  Navy  were  busy  all  the  time.  .Nobody  liked 
to  have  to  do  this  for  we  naturally  sympathized 
with  the  Cubans,  who  were  making  such  a  brave 
fight  against  stupid  and  tyrannical  governors  sent 
from  Spain.  One  of  the  last  of  these  was  par 
ticularly  bad.  He  herded  the  Cuban  people  into 
camps  where  they  died  of  disease  and  starvation, 
and  he  had  great  numbers  of  them  shot  without 
mercy.  We  had  justly  revolted  against  the  mis- 
government  of  King  George  III  in  1776,  but  noth 
ing  that  King  George's  governors  and  generals 
had  done  to  us  was  as  bad  as  the  things  the 
Spaniards  were  doing  in  Cuba,  in  1896  and  1897. 

Many  of  the  men  in  Washington  felt  that  war 
would  come  sooner  or  later.  Roosevelt  believed 
it  and  worked  constantly  to  have  the  Navy  ready. 
He  had  the  support  of  the  President  and  of  Secre 
tary  Long  in  nearly  everything  that  he  proposed, 
and  so  was  able  to  do  some  useful  work.  It  is 
important  to  understand  what  Roosevelt  thought 


60  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

about  war,  not  only  about  this,  but  about  all  wars. 
Here  it  is  in  his  own  words. 

I  abhor  unjust  war.  I  abhor  injustice  and  bullying 
by  the  strong  at  the  expense  of  the  weak,  whether 
among  nations  or  individuals.  I  abhor  violence  and 
bloodshed.  I  believe  that  war  should  never  be  resorted 
to  when,  or  so  long  as,  it  is  honorably  possible  to  avoid 
it.  I  respect  all  men  and  women  who  from  high  mo 
tives  and  with  sanity  and  self-respect  do  all  they  can  to 
avert  war.  I  advocate  preparation  for  war  in  order  to 
avert  war;  and  I  should  never  advocate  war  unless  it 
were  the  only  alternative  to  dishonor.3 

You  will  be  able  to  see  from  what  he  did  while 
he  was  President,  when  he  was  in  a  position  where 
he  could  have  plunged  the  country  into  war  half  a 
dozen  times,  whether  these  words  were  true,  or 
whether  he  was  really  the  fire-eater  which  some  of 
his  enemies  insisted  he  was. 

He  secured  from  Congress  nearly  a  million  dol 
lars,  to  permit  the  Navy  to  engage  in  target-prac 
tice.  To  those  who  were  alarmed  at  such 
"  waste,"  he  remarked  that  gun-powder  was 
meant  to  be  burned,  and  that  sailors  must  learn  to 
shoot,  since  in  battle,  the  shots  that  hit  are  the 
only  ones  that  count.  There  is  nothing  wonder 
ful  about  such  remarks.  In  looking  back  at  them 

1 "  Autobiography,"  p.  226. 


THE  ROUGH  RIDER  61 

there  seems  to  be  nothing  wonderful  about  many 
things  that  he  said  and  did.  They  are  merely 
examples  of  plain,  common-sense,  and  it  appears 
ridiculous  that  anybody  should  have  had  to  make 
such  remarks,  or  to  fight  hard  to  get  such  clearly 
necessary  things  done.  Yet  he  did  have  to  fight 
for  them.  It  had  to  be  driven  into  the  heads  of 
some  of  the  men  in  Congress  that  it  is  not  the 
proper  use  of  gun-powder  to  keep  it  stored  up, 
until  war  is  declared,  then  bring  it  out,  partly 
spoiled,  and  give  it  to  soldiers  and  sailors,  who 
for  lack  of  practice,  do  not  know  how  to  shoot 
straight. 

Roosevelt  also  was  able  to  help  in  having  ap 
pointed  to  command  the  Asiatic  squadron,  a  naval 
officer  named  Commodore  George  Dewey. 

On  February  15,  1898,  while  affairs  were  at 
their  worst  between  America  and  Spain,  our  bat 
tleship  Maine  was  blown  up  in  Havana  Harbor. 
She  had  gone  there  on  a  friendly  visit,  but  now 
was  destroyed  and  sent  to  the  bottom.  Over  two 
hundred  and  fifty  of  our  men  were  killed.  Al 
most  every  one  knew  that  war  was  now  certain. 
For  weeks  the  country  debated  as  to  the  cause  of 
the  explosion  which  sank  the  Maine,  and  the  mat 
ter  was  investigated  by  naval  officers  assisted  by 
divers.  They  found  that  the  explosion  had  come 


62  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

from  the  outside.  Somebody  had  set  off  a  mine 
or  torpedo  beneath  the  ship.  Nobody  in  America 
disputed  this,  except  a  few  of  the  peace-at-any- 
price  folk,  who  preferred  to  think  that  the  care 
lessness  of  our  own  sailors  had  been  the  cause. 
These  gentlemen  always  think  the  best  of  the  peo 
ple  of  other  nations,  which  is  a  fine  thing;  but 
they  are  always  ready  to  believe  the  worst  of  their 
own  countrymen,  which  is,  on  the  whole,  rather  a 
nasty  trait. 

Roosevelt  worked  at  top-speed  in  the  Navy  De 
partment,  and  began  to  lay  plans  for  going  to  the 
war  himself.  He  believed  that  it  was  right  and 
necessary  to  fight  Spain,  and  end  the  horrible  suf 
fering  in  Cuba.  And  he  believed  that  it  was  the 
duty  first  and  foremost  of  men  like  himself,  who 
advised  war,  to  take  part  in  it.  He  was  nearly 
forty  years  old,  and  had  a  family.  Many  other 
men  in  his  place  would  have  discovered  that  their 
services  were  most  important  in  Washington. 
They  would  have  stayed  in  their  offices,  and  let 
other  men  (whom  they  called  "  jingoes  ")  do  the 
fighting  for  them.  It  was  never  Roosevelt's  cus 
tom  to  act  that  way. 

Later  in  February,  while  Mr.  Long  was  away, 
and  Roosevelt  was  Acting-Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
he  sent  this  cable  message  to  Commodore 
Dewey : 


THE  ROUGH  RIDER  63 

WASHINGTON,  February  25,  '98. 
Dewey,  Hong  Kong 

Order  the  squadron,  except  the  Monocacy,  to  Hong 
Kong.  Keep  full  of  coal.  In  the  event  of  declaration 
of  war  Spain,  your  duty  will  be  to  see  that  the  Spanish 
squadron  does  not  leave  the  Asiatic  coast,  and  then 
offensive  operations  in  Philippine  Islands.  Keep 

Olympia  until  further  orders. 

ROOSEVELT. 

War  against  Spain  was  declared  in.  April, —  the 
month  in  our  history  which  has  also  seen  the  be 
ginning  of  our  Revolution,  our  Civil  War,  and 
our  entrance  into  the  Great  War  against  Germany. 
Congress  arranged  for  three  regiments  of  volun 
teer  cavalry  to  be  raised  among  the  men  in  the 
Rockies  and  on  the  Great  Plains  who  knew  how 
to  ride  and  shoot.  Here  Roosevelt  saw  his 
chance.  He  knew  these  men  and  longed  to  go  to 
war  in  their  company. 

The  Secretary  of  War  offered  to  make  him 
Colonel  of  one  of  these  regiments.  It  is  worth 
while  to  notice  what  his  reply  was.  He  knew  how 
to  manage  a  horse  and  a  rifle,  he  had  lived  in  the 
open  and  could  take  care  of  himself  in  the  field. 
He  had  had  three  years  in  the  National  Guard  in 
New  York,  rising  to  the  rank  of  Captain.  Many 
men  in  the  Civil  War  without  one  half  of  his  ex 
perience  and  knowledge,  gayly  accepted  Brigadier- 
Generalships.  Also,  in  the  Spanish  War,  another 


64  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

public  man,  Mr.  William  J.  Bryan,  allowed  him 
self  to  be  made  a  Colonel,  and  took  full  command 
of  a  regiment,  without  one  day's  military  expe 
rience.  Yet  Roosevelt  declined  the  offer  of  a 
Colonel's  commission  and  asked  to  be  made  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel,  with  Leonard  Wood,  of  the  reg 
ular  Army  as  his  Colonel. 

When  you  hear  or  read  that  Roosevelt  was  a 
conceited  man,  always  pushing  himself  forward, 
it  may  be  well  to  ask  if  that  is  the  way  a  conceited 
man  would  have  acted. 

Colonel  Wood  was  an  army  surgeon,  who  had 
been  a  fighting  officer  in  the  campaign  against 
the  Apaches.  He  had  been  awarded  the  Medal  of 
Honor,  the  highest  decoration  an  American  sol 
dier  can  win  for  personal  bravery. 

The  new  regiment,  the  First  United  States 
Volunteer  Cavalry,  was  promptly  called,  by  some 
newspaper  or  by  the  public,  the  "  Rough  Riders," 
and  by  that  name  it  is  always  known.  Most  of 
the  men  in  it  came  from  Arizona,  New  Mexico, 
Oklahoma  and  the  Indian  Territory,  but  it  had 
members  from  nearly  every  State.  Many  Eastern 
college  men  were  in  it,  including  some  famous 
foot-ball  players,  polo-players,  tennis  champions 
and  oarsmen.  The  regiment  trained  at  San  An 
tonio,  and  landed  in  Cuba  for  the  attack  on  Santi 
ago  on  June  22.  The  troopers  had  to  leave  their 


THE  ROUGH  RIDER  65 

horses  behind,  so  they  were  to  fight  on  foot  after 
all.  Roosevelt's  Rough  Riders,  somebody  said, 
had  become  Wood's  Weary  Walkers.  The  walk 
ing  was  not  pleasant  to  some  of  the  cow-boys,  who 
never  used  to  walk  a  step  when  there  was  a  horse 
to  ride. 

Within  a  day  or  two  they  were  in  a  fight  at 
Las  Guasimas.  It  was  a  confusing  business,  ad 
vancing  through  the  jungle  and  fired  at  by  an 
enemy  they  could  not  see.  The  Rough  Riders  lost 
eight  men  killed  and  thirty- four  wounded.  The 
Spaniards  were  using  smokeless  powder,  then 
rather  a  new  thing  in  war.  Two  of  our  regi 
ments  at  Santiago  were  still  using  black  powder 
rifles,  and  the  artillery  used  black  powder,  which 
by  its  smoke  showed  the  enemy  just  where  they 
were.  Our  artillery  was  always  silenced  or  driven 
off,  because  this  country  had  been  so  neglectful  of 
its  Army  and  its  men  as  to  let  poor,  old  backward 
Spain  get  better  guns,  and  more  modern  ammuni 
tion  than  ours.  That  never  should  happen  with 
a  rich,  progressive  country  like  ours. 

A  few  days  later  came  the  fight  at  San  Juan. 
Colonel  Wood  had  been  put  in  command  of  the 
brigade,  so  Roosevelt  led  the  regiment  of  Rough 
Riders.  It  was  a  fearfully  hot  day;  many  men 
dropped  from  exhaustion.  The  regular  regiments 
of  cavalry,  together  with  the  Rough  Riders,  all 


66  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fighting  on  foot,  moved  forward  against  the  low 
hills  on  which  were  the  Spaniards  in  btock-houses 
or  trenches.  For  some  while  they  were  kept  wait 
ing  in  reserve,  taking  what  shelter  they  could  from 
the  Mauser  bullets,  which  came  whirring  through 
the  tall  jungle  grass.  This  is  the  most  trying  part 
of  a  fight.  It  is  all  right  when  at  last  you  can 
charge  your  enemy  and  come  to  close  quarters 
with  him,  but  to  lie  on  the  ground  under  fire, 
unable  to  see  anybody  to  fire  upon,  is  the  worst 
strain  upon  the  soldiers'  nerves.  As  one  after 
another  is  shot,  the  officers  begin  to  watch  the  men 
closely  to  see  how  they  are  standing  it.  Roose 
velt  received  a  trifling  wound  from  a  shrapnel 
bullet  at  the  beginning  of  the  fight.  Later  his 
orderly  had  a  sun-stroke,  and  when  he  called  an 
other  orderly  to  take  a  message,  this  second  man 
was  killed  as  he  stood  near,  pitching  forward  dead 
at  Roosevelt's  feet. 

Finally  came  the  order  to  charge.  Roosevelt 
was  the  only  mounted  man  in  the  regiment.  He 
had  intended  to  go  into  the  fight  on  foot,  as  he  had 
at  Las  Guasimas,  but  found  that  the  heat  was  so 
bad  that  he  could  not  run  up  and  down  the  line 
and  superintend  things  unless  he  was  on  horse 
back.  When  he  was  mounted  he  could  see  his 
own  men  better,  and  they  could  see  him.  So 
could  the  enemy  see  him  better,  and  he  had  one 


THE  ROUGH  RIDER  67 

or  two  narrow  escapes  because  of  being  so  con 
spicuous. 

He  started  in  the  rear  of  the  regiment,  which  is 
where  the  Colonel  should  be,  according  to  the 
books,  but  soon  rode  through  the  lines  and  led  the 
charge  up  "  Kettle  Hill/' —  so-called  by  the  Rough 
Riders  because  there  were  some  sugar  kettles  on 
top  of  it.  His  horse  was  scraped  by  a  couple  of 
bullets,  as  he  went  up,  and  one  of  the  bullets 
nicked  his  elbow.  Members  of  the  other  cavalry 
regiments  were  mingled  with  the  Rough  Riders  in 
the  charge, —  their  officers  had  been  waiting  for 
orders,  and  were  glad  to  join  in  the  advance. 
The  Spaniards  were  driven  out  and  the  Rough 
Riders  planted  their  flags  on  the  hill. 

But  there  were  other  hills  and  other  trenches 
full  of  Spaniards  beyond,  and  again  the  Rough 
Riders,  mixed  with  men  of  other  regiments,  went 
forward.  In  cleaning  out  the  trenches  Roosevelt 
and  his  orderly  were  suddenly  fired  on  at  less  than 
ten  yards  by  two  Spaniards.  Roosevelt  killed  one 
of  them  with  his  revolver.  The  Rough  Riders 
had  had  eighty-eight  killed  and  wounded  out  of 
less  than  five  hundred  men  who  were  in  the  fight. 

The  American  forces  were  now  within  sight  of 
Santiago,  but  they  had  to  dig  in  and  hold  the 
ground  they  had  taken.  There  was  a  short  period 
in  the  trenches,  which  seemed  tedious  to  the  riders 


68  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

from  the  plains,  but  was  nothing  to  what  men, 
years  later,  had  to  endure  in  the  Great  War  against 
Germany.  At  last  Santiago  surrendered,  on 
July  17. 

The  war  ended  within  about  a  month.  Com 
modore  Dewey  had  beaten  the  Spanish  Fleet  at 
iManila  and  Admiral  Sampson  and  his  fleet  had 
destroyed  the  Spanish  cruisers  which  were  forced 
out  of  Santiago  Harbor  on  July  3rd,  as  a  result  of 
the  Army  getting  within  striking  distance  of  the 
city.  One  other  thing  of  importance  was  done  by 
Roosevelt  before  the  regiment  was  brought  home 
to  Montauk  Point  and  mustered  out.  After  the 
surrender  of  Santiago  it  was  supposed  that  the 
war  was  going  on  and  that  there  would  be  a  cam 
paign  in  the  winter  against  Havana.  But  the 
American  Army  was  full  of  yellow  fever.  Half 
the  Rough  Riders  were  sick  at  one  time,  and  the 
condition  of  other  regiments  was  as  bad.  The 
higher  officers  knew  that  unless  the  troops  were 
taken  to  some  healthier  climate  to  recover,  there 
would  be  nothing  left  of  them.  Over  four  thou 
sand  men  were  sick,  and  not  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
Army  was  fit  for  active  work.  But  the  War  De 
partment  would  not  listen  to  the  suggestion  that 
the  army  be  sent  for  a  while  to  a  cooler  climate. 

What  none  of  the  regular  Army  officers  could 
afford  to  do,  Roosevelt  did.  He  wrote  a  letter  to 


THE  ROUGH  RIDER  69 

General  Shafter,  the  commander  of  the  expedition, 
explaining  the  state  of  things,  and  setting  out  how 
important  it  was,  if  any  of  the  army  was  to  be 
kept  alive,  that  they  should  be  sent  away  from 
Cuba,  until  the  sickly  season  was  over.  General 
Shafter  really  wished  such  a  letter  to  be  written, 
and  he  allowed  the  Associated  Press  reporter  to 
have  it  as  soon  as  it  was  handed  to  him. 

Then,  all  the  Generals  joined  with  Roosevelt  in 
a  "  Round  Robin  "  to  General  Shafter,  saying  the 
same  things.  The  Government  at  Washington 
began  to  take  notice,  and  in  a  short  time  ordered 
the  army  home. 

Roosevelt  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  an  act 
which  caused  him  to  be  severely  blamed  by  many, 
to  be  denounced  by  all  who  worship  military  eti 
quette,  and  charged  with  "  insubordination  "  by 
men  who  would  rather  make  a  mess  of  things  and 
do  it  according  to  the  rules  of  the  book,  than  suc 
ceed  in  something  useful  and  do  it  by  common- 
sense  rules  made  up  at  the  time.  He  had  shocked 
the  folks  who  like  red  tape,  and  he  had  helped  save 
the  lives  of  perhaps  four  thousand  men. 


CHAPTER  IX 

GOVERNOR   OF   NEW   YORK 

WHEN  the  Rough  Riders  were  disbanded  at  Mon- 
tauk  Point  in  September  1898,  Theodore  Roose 
velt  was  the  most  popular  man  in  America. 
This  is  the  judgment  of  his  best  historian,  Mr. 
Thayer,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  correct.  The  war 
had  made  known  to  the  country  a  number  of 
professional  soldiers  or  sailors  —  especially  Ad 
miral  Dewey  and  Admiral  Sampson,  whose  con 
duct  had  been  splendid.  It  had  also  created  some 
popular  "  heroes,"  whose  fame  was  brief.  But 
Colonel  Roosevelt  was  first  and  foremost  a  citizen, 
his  career  as  a  soldier  was  for  a  few  months  only. 
Behind  that  was  a  solid  foundation  of  service  in 
civil  office.  Ahead  of  it  were  still  finer  achieve 
ments,  also  in  civil  life.  He  felt  the  pride  which 
all  men  feel  —  despite  much  pretense  and  hum 
bug —  to  have  had  the  chance  to  lead  men  in 
battle  for  a  just  cause,  to  have  put  his  life  in 
danger  when  his  country  needed  such  offer  of 
sacrifice. 

But  the  Santiago  campaign,  the  charge  up  San 
70 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK         71 

Juan  hill,  did  not  "  make  "  Roosevelt.  It  was  a 
dramatic  episode  in  his  history ;  it  attracted  atten 
tion  to  him.  Such  are  the  peculiar  conditions  of 
politics,  it  proved  a  short  cut  to  the  White  House. 
He  said,  frankly,  that  he  would  never  have  been 
President  if  the  Rough  Riders  had  not  gone  to 
Cuba.  In  this  he  underestimated  himself,  as  he 
often  did.  He  had  too  much  ability  in  politics, 
too  much  courage  in  fighting  for  the  cause  of  bet 
ter  government,  at  a  time  when  courage  was 
badly  needed,  to  have  failed  to  rise  to  the  highest 
office.  Back  in  tlie  days  when  he  was  Civil  Serv 
ice  Commissioner  two  visitors  in  the  WThite  House, 
saw  him,  also  a  visitor,  looking  about  the  rooms. 

"  There  is  a  young  man,"  said  one  of  them,  who 
knew  him,  "  who  is  going  to  move  into  this  house 
himself,  before  long." 

After  Cuba,  the  next  step  was  the  Governorship 
of  New  York  State.  Before  he  was  out  of  uni 
form,  the  politicians  began  talking  about  him  for 
the  place.  The  Republican  party  in  New  York 
was  in  a  bad  way.  They  had  quarreled  among 
themselves ;  the  Democrats  had  just  beaten  them  in 
an  election.  They  knew  they  must  have  a  strong 
candidate  for  Governor,  or  the  Democrats,  (that 
is,  Tammany  Hall)  would  get  control  at  Albany. 

This  was  the  great  day  of  the  political  Bosses. 
Perhaps  at  no  time  since  have  they  been  quite  as 


72  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

powerful  as  they  were  then.  A  man  named 
Croker  was  the  Boss  of  the  Democratic  Party;  a 
man  named  Platt,  the  Boss  of  the  Republicans. 
Men  called  the  Boss  of  their  own  party  the  "  Lead 
er,"  but  they  referred  to  the  "  Leader  "  of  the 
other  party  as  the  Boss,  without  wasting  any 
politeness.  Most  men  do  not  pay  much  attention 
to  politics ;  a  Boss  is  a  man  who  pays  too  much  at 
tention  to  them.  He  exists  because  the  average 
citizen  thinks  he  has  done  his  whole  duty  if  he 
votes  on  election  day.  A  Boss  works  at  his  busi 
ness,  which  is  politics,  night  and  day,  all  the  year 
round.  He  might  be  very  useful  if  he  could  be 
kept  honest.  He  manages  to  get  a  great  deal  of 
power,  in  ways  that  are  shady,  if  not  actually 
criminal.  Then,  if  he  is  one  kind  of  a  Boss, 
greedy  for  money,  he  sells  this  power  to  the  high 
est  bidder.  Men  are  nominated  for  office,  because 
the  Boss  has  picked  them  out,  as  a  poultryman 
might  select  a  fat  goose.  Usually  he  selects  a  man 
who  will  obey  orders.  But  another  kind  of  Boss 
does  not  especially  care  for  money.  He  likes  the 
power  wrhich  his  position  gives  him,  he  likes  to 
be  able  to  move  men  about  as  if  they  were  toy- 
soldiers. 

Such  apparently  was  Senator  Platt,  the  Re 
publican  Boss  of  New  York.  People  had  so 
neglected  their  duty  of  managing  their  own  af- 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK        73 

fairs  in  politics,  that  he  had  seized  the  reins,  and 
could  say  who  should  be  nominated.  In  the  same 
way  Croker  was  the  ruler  of  the  Democratic  party 
in  New  York,  and  could  say  who  should  be  nomi 
nated  in  his  party. 

Now,  in  such  a  situation,  what  was  an  honest 
man  to  do  ?  The  best  men  in  the  Republican  party 
believed  that  Roosevelt  was  the  only  one  who 
could  be  elected,  that  the  people  believed  so  firmly 
in  his  honor  and  courage  that  they  would  vote  for 
him.  Senator  Platt  did  not  want  him,  did  not 
like  him,  but  he  came  to  see  that  they  could  win 
with  him,  and  with  no  one  else.  So  Roosevelt 
was  nominated,  and  elected,  by  a  narrow  lead  of 
18,000  votes.  So  far,  the  people  could  rule  with 
Roosevelt  as  their  servant.  But  the  Governor  can 
do  little  alone;  he  must  have  the  support  of  the 
Legislature,  and  the  other  State  officers.  The 
Boss  hoped  to  rule  through  them,  to  say  who 
should  be  appointed  to  office,  to  decide  which  bill 
should  pass  and  which  be  defeated. 

There  were  people  who  would  have  had  Gover 
nor  Roosevelt  declare  war  on  Platt ;  refuse  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  him;  refuse  even  to  speak  to 
him.  In  that  way  he  could  have  done  nothing  for 
the  good  of  the  State;  he  could  have  spent  his 
term  in  fighting  Platt,  made  a  great  show  of  in 
dependence  and  reform,  but,  in  point  of  fact,  ad- 


74  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

vanced  the  cause  of  good  government  not  an  inch. 
All  of  his  proposals  would  have  been  blocked  by 
Platt's  men  in  the  Legislature. 

Instead,  he  acted  in  accord  with  the  facts  as 
they  were;  not  as  if  they  were  the  way  he  would 
have  liked  them  to  be.  If  Platt  could  not  rule  he 
could  ruin.  So  the  Governor  treated  him  politely, 
and  only  disagreed  with  him  when  the  Boss  pro 
posed  something  actually  bad.  For  instance, 
there  was  a  most  important  officer,  the  Super 
intendent  of  Public  Works,  to  be  appointed. 
Senator  Platt  informed  Governor  Roose 
velt  that  a  certain  man  had  been  chosen;  he 
showed  him  the  telegram  with  the  man's  ac 
ceptance.  Roosevelt  said,  quietly,  something  like 
this  : 

"  I  think  not,  Senator.  The  Governor  appoints 
that  officer,  and  I  am  the  Governor." 

Platt  was  very  angry ;  Roosevelt  refused  to  get 
angry,  but  stuck  to  his  decision,  and  made  his  own 
choice.  Things  like  this  happened  again  and 
again,  during  the  two  years  while  Roosevelt  was 
Governor  of  New  York. 

Every  honorable  man  in  American  politics  has 
to  fight  against  this  evil  of  the  Boss.  Office 
holders,  Presidents  and  Governors,  come  and  go, 
but  the  Bosses  hold  their  power  for  a  long  time. 
So  long  as  they  exist  it  is  not  wise  for  us  to  talk 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK         75 

too  much  about  Kings  and  their  tyranny.  For  a 
Boss  is  very  like  a  King.  Platt  and  Croker 
thought  that  the  people  were  not  fit  to  rule ;  theirs 
was  much  the  same  idea  that  King  George  the 
Third  and  the  German  Kaiser  had.  The  best  and 
wisest  men  have  had  to  admit  the  strength  of  the 
Boss  and  try  to  deal  with  him  as  well  as  they 
could ;  Abraham  Lincoln  even  had  to  appoint  one 
to  his  Cabinet.  The  Boss  creeps  into  power  while 
the  people  are  asleep. 

Roosevelt  pointed  out  that  it  is  not  hard  for  a 
man  to  be  good  if  he  lives  entirely  by  himself. 
Nor  is  it  difficult  for  him  to  get  things  done,  if  he 
is  careless  about  right  and  wrong.  The  hard 
thing,  yet  the  one  which  must  be  demanded  of  the 
public  man,  is  to  get  useful  things  done,  and  to 
keep  straight  all  the  while.  When  Roosevelt  was 
elected  Governor,  John  Hay,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  wrote  to  him  : 

"  You  have  already  shown  that  a  man  may  be  ab 
solutely  honest  and  yet  practical ;  a  reformer  by  instinct 
and  a  wise  politician;  brave,  bold  and  uncompromis 
ing,  and  yet  not  a  wild  ass  of  the  desert.  The  exhibi 
tion  made  by  the  professional  independents  in  voting 
against  you  for  no  reason  on  earth  except  that  some 
body  else  was  voting  for  you,  is  a  lesson  that  is  worth 
its  cost."  1 

i "  Autobiography,"  p.  206. 


76  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  year  1900  was  the  year  of  a  Presidential 
election.  Mr.  McKinley  was  to  run  again  on  the 
Republican  ticket,  and  later  it  appeared  that  Mr. 
Bryan  would  oppose  him  again,  as  he  had  in  1896. 
The  Republican  Vice-President,  Mr.  Hobart,  had 
died  in  office,  so  the  Republicans  had  to  find  some 
one  to  go  on  the  ticket  with  President  McKinley. 
Roosevelt  was  mentioned  for  the  office,  and  Platt 
warmly  agreed,  hoping  to  get  him  out  of  New 
York  politics.  Roosevelt,  at  first,  refused  to  con 
sider  an  office  which  has  more  dignity  than  use 
fulness  about  it.  Another  utterance  of  Secretary 
of  State  John  Hay  is  interesting.  He  wrote  to  a 
friend : 

"  Teddy  has  been  here :  have  you  heard  of  it  ?  It 
was  more  fun  than  a  goat.  He  came  down  with  a 
somber  resolution  thrown  on  his  strenuous  brow  to  let 
McKinley  and  Hanna  know  once  for  all  that  he  would 
not  be  Vice-President,  and  found  to  his  stupefaction 
that  nobody  in  Washington,  except  Platt,  had  ever 
dreamed  of  such  a  thing."  x 

Mr.  Hay  was  one  of  the  wisest  of  our  states 
men;  one  of  the  most  polished  and  agreeable  men 
in  public  life.  Yet  this  letter  shows  how  the 
older  men  often  mistook  Roosevelt.  For, 
in  less  than  a  year  after  Mr.  Hay  had  gently 
poked  fun  at  "  Teddy  "  for  thinking  that  he  might 
iThayer,  p.  148. 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK        77 

be  made  Vice-President,  and  said  that  there  was 
not  the  slightest  danger  of  such  a  thing  happening, 
Roosevelt  had  been  elected  to  that  office.  His  en 
joyment  of  his  work,  his  bubbling  merriment,  his 
lack  of  the  old-fashioned,  pompous  manners  which 
used  to  be  supposed  proper  for  a  statesman,  made 
many  older  men  inclined  to  treat  him  with  a  sort 
of  fatherly  amusement.  They  looked  at  his  acts 
as  an  older  man  might  look  at  the  pranks  of  a  boy. 
And  then,  suddenly,  they  found  themselves  serving 
under  this  "  youngster,"  in  the  Government !  It 
was  a  surprise  from  which  they  never  recovered. 
I  have  said  that  the  reporters,  the  makers  of 
funny  pictures  in  the  newspapers,  and  others,  ex 
aggerated  Roosevelt's  traits,  and  created  a  false 
idea  about  him.  This  is  true.  But  it  is  also  true 
that  there  was  a  great  deal  of  real  and  honest  fun 
poked  at  him  throughout  his  life,  and  that  it  added 
to  the  public  enjoyment  of  his  career.  The 
writers  of  comic  rhymes,  the  cartoonists,  and  the 
writers  of  political  satire  had  a  chance  which  no 
other  President  has  ever  given  them.  Many  of 
our  Presidents  —  wise  and  good  men  —  and 
many  Senators,  Governors,  Cabinet  officers  and 
others,  have  gone  about  as  if  they  were  all  ready 
to  pose  for  their  statues.  Roosevelt  never  did 
this.  He  bore  himself  in  public  with  dignity,  and 
respect  for  the  high  offices  to  which  the  people 


78  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

elected  him.  But  he  did  not  suggest  the  old 
style  of  portrait,  in  which  a  statesman  is  standing 
stiffly,  hand  in  the  breast  of  his  coat,  a  distant  view 
of  the  Capitol  in  the  background.  He  had  too 
keen  a  sense  of  fun  for  anything  of  the  sort. 

Nobody  laughed  at  the  jokes  about  him  more 
heartily  than  he  did  himself.  When  "  Mr.  Doo- 
ley  "  described  his  adventures  as  a  Rough  Rider, 
and  spoke  of  him  as  "  Alone  in  Cubia,"  as  if  he 
thought  he  had  won  the  war  all  by  himself,  he 
wrote  to  the  author : 

"  Three  cheers  Mr.  Dooley !  Do  come  on  and  let 
me  see  you  soon.  I  am  by  no  means  so  much  alone  as 
in  Cubia.  .  .  ." 

"  Let  me  repeat  that  Dooley,  especially  when  he 
writes  about  Teddy  Rosenfelt  has  no  more  interested 
and  amused  reader  than  said  Rosenfelt  himself." 1 


Mr.  McKinley  was  re-elected  President  of  the 
United  States  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  elected  Vice- 
President  in  November  1900.  Roosevelt  had 
taken  part  in  the  campaign  before  election,  and 
of  this  Mr.  Thayer  writes : 

He  spoke  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  and  for  the 
first  time  the  people  of  many  of  the  States  heard  him 
speak  and  saw  his  actual  presence.  His  attitude  as  a 

1  Scribner's  Magazine,  December,  1919,  p.  658. 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK         79 

speaker,  his  gestures,  the  way  in  which  his  pent  up 
thoughts  seemed  almost  to  strangle  him  before  he  could 
utter  them,  his  smile  showing  the  white  rows  of  teeth, 
his  fist  clenched  as  if  to  strike  an  invisible  adversary, 
the  sudden  dropping  of  his  voice,  and  leveling  of  his 
forefinger  as  he  became  almost  conversational  in  tone, 
and  seemed  to  address  special  individuals  in  the  crowd 
before  him,  the  strokes  of  sarcasm,  stern  and  cutting, 
and  the  swift  flashes  of  humor  which  set  the  great 
multitude  in  a  roar,  became  in  that  summer  and 
autumn  familiar  to  millions  of  his.  countrymen;  and 
the  cartoonists  made  his  features  and  gestures  familiar 
to  many  other  millions.1 

In  the  following  March  he  was  sworn  in  as 
Vice-President.  His  duties  as  presiding  officer  of 
the  Senate  were  not  severe,  and  he  went  on  a 
cougar  hunt  in  Colorado  in  the  winter  before  in 
auguration  to  enable  him  to  bear  the  physical  in 
activity  of  his  new  work. 

When  he  came  back  to  Washington  again,  to 
hold  the  second  highest  place  in  the  national  gov 
ernment,  it  troubled  him  to  think  that  he  had 
never  finished  the  study  of  law,  begun  in  New 
York  many  years  before.  He  asked  his  friend, 
Justice  White  of  the  Supreme  Court,  if  it  would 
be  wrong  for  him  to  take  a  legal  course  in  a 
Washington  law  school.  The  Justice  told  him 
that  it  would  hardly  be  proper  for  the  Vice-Presi- 

1Thayer,  p.  51. 


80  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

dent  to  do  that,  but  offered  to  tutor  him  in  law. 
They  agreed  to  study  together  the  following 
winter. 

But  Roosevelt's  term  as  Vice-President  was 
coming  to  an  end.  He  only  occupied  the  office  for 
six  months.  He  was  soon  to  succeed  to  the  high 
est  office  of  all. 


Copyright  by    Underwood    &   Underwood. 

PRESIDENT   ROOSEVELT    SPEAKING    IN    ALABAMA 


CHAPTER  X 

PRESIDENT    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

IN  the  first  week  of  September  1901,  President 
McKinley  was  killed  by  an  anarchist  in  Buffalo. 
The  young  man  who  shot  him  was  rather  weak- 
minded,  and  had  been  led  to  believe,  by  the 
speeches  and  writings  of  others,  craftier  and 
wickeder  than  himself,  that  he  could  help  the  poor 
and  unfortunate  by  murdering  the  President. 
This  he  treacherously  did  while  shaking  hands 
with  him. 

One  of  the  leaders  of  the  poisonous  brood  who 
had  made  this  young  man  believe  such  villainous 
nonsense  was  a  foreign  woman  named  Emma 
Goldman,  who  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  went  up 
and  down  the  land,  trying  to  overthrow  the  law 
and  government,  yet  always  Calling  for  the  pro 
tection  of  both  when  she  was  in  danger.  "The 
American  Government  tolerated  this  mischief- 
maker  until  1919,  when  it  properly  sent  her,  and 
others  of  her  stripe,  back  to  their  own  country. 

President  McKinley,  who  was  the  gentlest  and 
kindest  of  men,  did  not  die  immediately  from  the 

81 


82  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

bullet  wound,  but  lingered  for  about  a  week. 
Vice-President  Roosevelt  joined  him  in  Buffalo, 
and  came  to  believe,  from  the  reports  of  the  doc 
tors,  that  the  President  would  get  well.  So  he 
returned  to  his  family  who  were  in  the  Adiron- 
dacks.  A  few  days  later,  while  Mr.  Roosevelt 
was  mountain-climbing,  a  message  came  that  the 
President  was  worse  and  that  the  Vice-President 
must  come  at  once  to  Buffalo.  He  drove  fifty 
miles  by  night,  in  a  buckboard  down  the  mountain 
roads,  took  a  special  train,  and  arrived  in  Buffalo 
the  next  afternoon. 

Mr.  McKinley  was  dead,  and  Theodore  Roose 
velt  took  the  oath  of  office  as  President.  He  was 
under  forty-three  years  of  age,  the  youngest  man 
who  had  ever  become  President. 

It  is  important  to  note  his  first  act.  It 
was  to  insist  that  all  of  Mr.  McKinley's  Cabinet 
remain  in  office.  Thus  he  secured  for  the  con 
tinued  service  of  the  Nation,  some  of  its  ablest 
men :  Mr.  Hay,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  Sec 
retaries  of  State  we  have  ever  had,  and  Mr.  Root, 
Secretary  of  War,  and  afterwards  Secretary  of 
State,  whose  highly  trained  legal  mind  placed  him 
at  the  head  of  his  profession. 

A  test  of  a  great  man,  as  well  as  a  test  of  a 
modest  man,  in  the  true  sense,  is  whether  he  is 
willing  to  have  other  able  and  eminent  men 


PRESIDENT  83 

around  him  as  his  assistants  and  fellow-workers. 
The  most  remarkable  instances  of  this  among  our 
Presidents  were  Washington  and  Lincoln.  The 
latter  appointed  men  not  because  they  admired 
him,  or  were  personally  agreeable  to  him ;  indeed 
some  of  his  strongest  and  bitterest  antagonists 
were  put  in  his  Cabinet,  because  he  knew  that  they 
could  well  serve  the  country. 

Mr.  McKinley  had  chosen  excellent  Cabinet  of 
ficers,  and  these  Mr.  Roosevelt  kept  in  office,  pro 
moting  them  and  appointing  other  men  of  high 
ability  to  other  offices  as  the  need  arose.  He  did 
not  care  to  shine  as  a  great  man  among  a  group 
of  second-rate  persons;  he  preferred  to  be  chief 
among  his  peers,  the  leader  of  the  strongest  and 
most  sagacious  of  his  time. 

In  saying  this,  I  do  not  mean  to  compare  Roose 
velt  with  Washington  or  Lincoln  or  any  of  the 
noble  figures  of  the  past.  Such  comparisons  are 
made  too  often;  every  President  for  fifty  years 
has  been  acclaimed  by  his  admirers  as  "  the  great 
est  since  Lincoln,"  or  "  as  great  as  Lincoln." 
This  is  both  foolish  and  useless.  There  has  been 
no  character  in  our  land  like  Lincoln;  he  stands 
alone.  What  we  can  say  of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  now, 
is  that  he  was  admired  and  beloved  by  millions 
of  his  fellow-countrymen  while  he  lived ;  that  his 
was  an  extraordinary  and  entirely  different  char- 


84  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

acter  from  that  of  any  of  our  Presidents;  and 
that  upon  his  death  thousands  who  had  opposed 
him  and  bitterly  hated  him  but  a  few  years  before, 
were  altering  their  opinion  and  speaking  of  him 
in  admiration  —  with  more  than  the  mere  respect 
which  custom  pays  to  the  dead.  This  has  gone 
on,  and  other  unusual  signs  have  been  given  of 
the  world's  esteem  for  him.  So  much  we  can  say; 
and  leave  the  determination  of  his  place  in  our 
history  for  a  later  time  than  ours. 

One  thing  which  many  people  feared  when 
Roosevelt  became  President  was  that  he  would  get 
the  country  into  a  war.  They  thought  he  liked 
war  for  its  own  sake.  Men  said :  "  Oh !  this 
Roosevelt  is  such  a  rash,  impulsive  fellow !  He 
will  have  us  in  a  war  in  a  few  months !  "  The 
exact  opposite  was  the  truth.  He  kept  our  coun 
try  and  our  flag  respected  throughout  the  world ; 
he  avoided  two  possible  wars ;  he  helped  end  a  for 
eign  war;  we  lived  at  peace.  Of  him  it  can  truly 
be  said :  he  kept  us  out  of  war,  and  he  kept  us  in 
the  paths  of  honor. 

He  preached  the  doctrine  of  the  square  deal. 

"  A  man  who  is  good  enough  to  shed  his  blood 
for  his  country,  is  good  enough  to  be  given  a 
square  deal  afterward.  More  than  that  no  man  is 
entitled  to,  and  less  than  that  no  man  shall  have."  l 

1  Springfield,  111.,  July  4,  1903.    Thayer,  p.  212. 


PRESIDENT  85 

He  did  not  seek  help  and  rewards  from  the  rich 
by  enabling  them  to  prey  upon  the  poor;  neither 
did  he  seek  the  votes  and  applause  of  the  poor  by 
cheap  and  unjust  attacks  upon  the  rich.  To  the 
people  who  expect  a  public  man  to  lean  unfairly 
to  one  side  or  the  other;  who  cannot  understand 
any  different  way  of  acting,  he  was  a  constant 
puzzle. 

"  Oh !  we  have  got  him  sized  up !  "  they  would 
say,  "  he  is  for  the  labor  unions  against  the  cap 
italist  !  "  and  in  a  few  months  they  would  be 
puzzled  again :  "  No ;  he  is  for  Wall  Street  and  he 
is  down  on  the  poor  laboring  man." 

For  a  long  time  they  could  not  get  it  into  their 
heads  that  he  was  for  the  honest  man,  whether 
laboring  man  or  capitalist,  and  against  the  dis 
honest  man,  whether  laboring  man  or  capitalist. 

"  While  I  am  President  the  doors  of  the  White 
House  will  open  as  easily  for  the  labor  leader  as 
for  the  capitalist, —  and  no  easier."  1 

Many  Presidents  might  have  said  the  first  part 
of  that  sentence.  Few  of  them  would  have  added 
the  last  three  words. 

He  annoyed  many  people  in  the  South  by  in 
viting  a  very  able  and  eminent  Negro,  Booker  T. 
Washington,  to  eat  luncheon  with  him.  Accord 
ing  to  the  curious  way  of  thinking  on  this  subject, 
1  Hagedorn,  p.  242. 


86  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Mr.  Washington  who  had  been  good  enough  to 
eat  dinner  at  the  table  of  the  Queen  of  England, 
was  not  good  enough  to  eat  at  the  White  House. 
Shortly  after  being  violently  denounced  for  being 
too  polite  to  a  Negro,  he  was  still  more  violently 
denounced  for  being  too  harsh  to  Negroes.  He 
discharged  from  the  Ar«my  some  riotous  and  dis 
orderly  Negro  soldiers.  Persons  with  small  na 
tures  had  attacked  him  for  showing  courtesy  to  a 
distinguished  man;  other  persons  with  equally 
small  natures  now  attacked  him  for  acting  justly 
towards  mutinous  soldiers. 

What  did  he  do  while  he  was  President  ?  What 
laws  were  passed  by  Congress,  which  he  advocated 
or  urged,  and  which  he  approved  by  his  signature  ? 
Here  are  some  of  them  as  they  are  given  by  Mr. 
Washbnrn,1  a  Congressman  of  that  time: 

The  Elkins  Anti-Rebate  Law,  to  end  unjust 
business  dealings  of  the  railroads. 

The  creation  of  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor. 

T4*e4aw. -for  building  theJ?anarna  Carial. 

The  laws  to  prevent  impure  and  poisonous  food 
being  sold  under  false  labels;  and  the  law  to  es 
tablish  the  proper  inspection  of  meat. 

The  creation  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration. 

The  law  limiting  the  working  hours  of  em- 
1  Washburn,  "  Theodore  Roosevelt,"  p.  128. 


PRESIDENT  87 

ployees  and  protecting  them  in  case  of  injury  in 
their  occupations. 

The  law  against  child-labor  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

The  reformation  of  the  Consular  Service. 

The  law  to  stop  corporations  from  giving  great 
sums  of  money  for  political  purposes  at  election 
time. 

You  will  notice  that  these  were  not  laws  to 
enable  a  few  rich  men  to  get  richer  still  at  the 
expense  of  the  many ;  neither  were  they  designed 
to  help  dishonest  labor  leaders  to  plunder  the  em 
ployers.  They  were  aimed  to  bring  about  justice 
between  man  and  man,  to  protect  the  weak. 

There  was,  when  Mr.  Roosevelt  became  Presi 
dent,  a  long  standing  dispute  between  this  country 
and  England  and  Canada  about  the  boundary  of 
Alaska.  This  was  quickly  settled  by  arbitration ; 
our  rights  were  secured ;  and  all  possible  causes  of 
war  were  removed. 

The  South  American  country,  Colombia,  made 
an  attempt  to  block  the  building  of  the  Panama 
Canal.  This  canal  had  been  planned  to  run 
through  the  State  of  Panama,  which  was  part  of 
the  Republic  of  Colombia.  It  was  a  part  of  that 
country,  however,  separated  by  fifteen  days'  jour 
ney  from  the  capital  city,  Bogota,  and  so  sep 
arated  in  friendship  from  the  rest  of  the  country 


88  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

that  it  had  made  over  fifty  attempts  in  fifty  years 
to  revolt  and  gain  independence.  Our  State  De 
partment,  through  Mr.  Hay,  had  come  to  an  un 
derstanding  with  the  Minister  from  Colombia  as 
to  the  canal,  and  the  amount  we  were  to  pay 
Colombia  for  the  privilege  of  building  this  im 
portant  waterway,  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
world. 

But  the  Colombian  Government  at  that  time 
were  a  slippery  lot, —  dealing  with  them,  said 
President  Roosevelt,  "  was  like  trying  to  nail  cur 
rant  jelly  to  a  wall."  It  struck  them  that  they 
would  do  well  to  squeeze  more  money  yet  out  of 
Uncle  Sam,  and  that  they  might  by  twisting  and 
turning,  get  forty  million  dollars  as  easily  as  ten 
millions.  So  they  delayed  and  quibbled. 

In  the  meantime,  the  people  of  Panama,  not 
wishing  to  lose  the  advantage  of  the  canal,  and 
desiring  greatly  to  take  any  opportunity  to  free 
themselves  from  the  Colombians  who  had  plun 
dered  them  for  years,  declared  a  revolution,  which 
took  place  without  bloodshed.  Colombian  troops, 
coming  to  try  to  reconquer  Panama,  were  for 
bidden  to  land  by  our  ships,  acting  under  Presi 
dent  Roosevelt's  orders.  We  were  under  treaty 
agreement  to  preserve  order  on  the  Isthmus.  Our 
Government  recognized  the  new  Republic  of  Pan 
ama,  an  act  which  was  promptly  followed  by  all 


PRESIDENT  89 

the  nations  of  the  earth.  We  then  opened  nego 
tiations  with  Panama,  paid  the  money  to  her,  and 
built  the  Canal. 

Of  course  the  politicians  in  Colombia  gave  vent 
to  a  piercing  howl.  A  tricky  horse-dealer,  who 
has  a  horse  which  he  has  abused  for  years,  but 
desires  to  sell  to  a  customer  for  four  times  its 
value,  would  be  angry  if  the  horse  ran  away,  and 
he  lost  not  only  the  animal,  but  also  his  chances  of 
swindling  the  customer.  So  with  the  Colombians. 
Some  people  in  this  country  took  up  their  cry,  and 
professed  to  feel  great  sorrow  for  Colombia.  It 
was  noticed,  however,  that  this  sorrow  seemed  to 
afflict  most  pitifully  the  people  who  were  strongest 
in  their  opposition  to  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  this 
caused  a  suspicion  that  their  pretended  horror  at 
the  act  of  our  Government  was  not  so  much  based 
upon  any  knowledge  of  the  facts,  as  upon  a  readi 
ness  to  think  evil  of  the  President.  Others  who 
joined  in  an  expression  of  grief  at  the  time,  and 
later  attempted  to  bolster  up  Colombia's  claims 
for  damages,  belonged  to  that  class  referred  to  in 
connection  with  the  sinking  of  the  Maine,  who  al 
ways  think  the  best  of  any  foreign  country  and 
suspect  the  worst  of  their  own. 

The  fact  that  other  countries  instantly  recog 
nized  Panama,  and  that  President  Roosevelt's  ac 
tion  was  completely  and  emphatically  endorsed  by 


90  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Secretary  Hay,  proved  that  the  Panama  incident 
was  an  example  of  the  promptness,  wisdom  and 
courage  in  the  conduct  of  foreign  relations  which 
leads  alike  to  justice  and  the  satisfactory  settle 
ment  of  difficult  problems.  For  not  the  bitterest 
opponent  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  administration  ever 
dared  to  cast  a  shadow  of  doubt  upon  the  honesty 
of  Secretary  Hay.  The  canal  is  now  built,  thanks 
in  large  part  to  President  Roosevelt,  and  we  have 
had  a  chance  to  see  that  wise  decisions  may  often 
be  reached  swiftly;  whereas  dawdling,  hesitation 
and  timidity,  which  are  sometimes  mistaken  for 
statesmanship,  are  more  than  apt  to  end,  not  only 
in  general  injustice,  but  in  practical  failure. 

The  war  between  Russia  and  Japan  took  place 
during  President  Roosevelt's  term  of  office.  Af 
ter  it  had  been  going  on  over  a  year,  and  Japan 
had  won  victories  by  land  and  sea,  the  President 
asked  both  countries  to  open  negotiations  for 
peace.  He  continued  to  exert  strong  influence  in 
every  quarter  to  help  bring  the  two  enemies  to  an 
agreement.  Only  since  his  death  has  it  become 
generally  known  how  hard  he  worked  to  this  end. 
A  peace  conference  was  held  at  Kittery  Navy 
Yard  in  Maine,  and  a  treaty  was  signed  which 
ended  the  war. 

For  his  action  in  this,  President  Roosevelt  was 
the  first  American  to  receive  the  Nobel  Peace 


PRESIDENT  91 

Prize.  This  was  a  sad  reverse  to  the  predictions 
of  those  who  had  been  so  sure  that  he  was  longing 
to  start  wars,  instead  of  end  them.  Indeed,  men 
who  prophesied  evil  about  Mr.  Roosevelt,  as  well 
as  those  who  tried  to  catch  him  in  traps,  had  a 
most  disappointing  experience.  The  Nobel  Prize 
consisted  of  a  diploma,  and  an  award  in  money  of 
$40,000.  This  he  tried  to  devote  to  helping  the 
cause  of  peace  between  capital  and  labor  in  Amer 
ica.  When  Congress  failed  to  take  the  needed 
action  to  apply  his  money  for  this  purpose,  it  was 
returned  to  him.  During  the  Great  War  he  gave 
all  of  it  to  different  relief  organizations,  like  the 
Red  Cross,  and  other  societies  for  helping  the 
sufferers. 

The  President  assembled  the  most  powerful 
fleet  we  had  ever  had  together,  sixteen  battleships, 
with  destroyers,  and  sent  them  on  a  cruise  around 
the  world.  This  was  bitterly  opposed  at  the  time. 
Public  men  and  newspapers  predicted  that  the 
fleet  could  never  make  the  voyage,  or  that  even  if 
it  could,  its  effect  would  be  to  cause  war  with 
some  other  nation.  The  most  emphatic  predic 
tions  were  made  by  a  famous  newspaper  that  the 
entrance  of  the  fleet  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  would 
be  the  signal  for  a  declaration  of  war  upon  us  by 
a  foreign  power.  Nothing  of  the  sort  happened. 
The  cruise  attracted  to  the  American  navy  the 


92  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

admiration  of  the  world;  it  immensely  increased 
the  usefulness  of  the  Navy  itself  by  the  experi 
ence  it  gave  the  officers  and  men;  and  it  served 
warning  upon  anybody  who  needed  it  (and  some 
folk  did  need  it)  that  America  was  not  a  country 
of  dollar-chasing  Yankees,  rich  and  helpless,  but 
that  it  had  the  ability  to  defend  itself. 

This  was  an  illustration  of  Roosevelt's  use  of 
the  old  saying:  "  Speak  softly  and  carry  a  big 
stick;  you  will  go  far."  When  he  first  repeated 
this,  it  was  seized  upon  by  the  newspapers  for  its 
amusing  quality,  and  he  was  henceforth  pictured 
as  carrying  a  tremendous  bludgeon,  of  the  sort 
which  giants  usually  bore  in  the  tale  of  "  Jack  the 
Giant  Killer."  Timid  folk  thought  that  it  proved 
their  worst  fears  about  his  fondness  for  a  fight. 
They  failed  to  notice  the  "  Speak  softly  "  part  of 
the  saying.  It  was  only  a  vivid  way  of  advising 
his  countrymen  to  be  quiet  and  polite  in  their  deal 
ings  with  other  nations,  but  not  to  let  America 
become  defenseless.  What  hasty  and  shallow 
critics  denounced  as  the  threat  of  a  bully,  proved 
in  practice  to  be  the  sagacious  advice  of  a  states 
man,  whose  promise  when  he  took  office,  to  pre 
serve  the  peace  and  honor  of  his  beloved  country, 
was  kept  faithfully  and  precisely. 

And  he  was  able  to  keep  the  peace,  to  fill  the 
office  of  President  for  seven  years  without  having 


PRESIDENT  93 

a  shot  fired  by  our  forces,  because  he  made  it  clear 
that  this  country  would  not  submit  to  wrong, 
would  not  argue  or  bicker  with  foreign  tres 
passers,  kidnappers,  highwaymen  or  murderers, 
but  would  promptly  fight  them.  He  did  not  fill 
the  air  with  beautiful  words  about  his  love  of 
peace;  but  we  had  peace.  For  as  he  knew  per 
fectly  well,  there  were  countries,  like  Canada,  with 
which  we  could  live  at  peace  for  a  hundred  years 
and  more,  without  needing  forts  or  guns  be 
tween  them  and  us,  because  we  think  alike  on  most 
subjects,  and  respect  each  other's  honor. 

And  there  were  other  countries,  Germany  in 
particular,  against  whom  all  her  neighbors  have  to 
live  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  in  deadly  fear,  because 
the  Germans  respect  nothing  on  earth  except 
force.  To  argue  or  plead  with  the  Germans,  as 
he  well  knew,  was  not  only  a  waste  of  time,  it  was 
worse :  it  was  a  direct  invitation  to  war.  Because 
since  1870  the  Germans  think  that  any  country 
which  professes  to  love  peace,  any  country  whose 
statesmen  utter  noble  thoughts  about  peace,  is 
simply  a  cowardly  country,  bent  on  making  money, 
and  afraid  to  fight.  So  when, —  during  Roose 
velt's  administration,  the  biggest  swaggering 
"  gun-man  "of  the  world,  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  of 
Germany,  made  a  threat  against  the  peace  of 
America,  Roosevelt  no  more  read  him  pretty  lee- 


94  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

tures  about  his  love  of  peace,  than  he  would  have 
recited  poetry  to  that  other  gun-man  in  the  hotel 
in  Dakota  years  before.  He  simply  told  the 
Kaiser  in  a  few  words,  just  what  would  happen 
if  Germany  didn't  drop  it.  It  was  so  quietly  done 
that  nobody  knew  anything  at  all  about  it  until 
years  afterward.  There  was  no  delay;  there  was 
no  endless  note-writing;  there  was  no  blustering; 
the  Kaiser  climbed  down;  and  there  was  no  war. 

This,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  was  one  of  the 
most  important  events  of  Roosevelt's  seven  years 
in  the  White  House.  If  we  wish  America  to  live 
henceforth  in  peace  and  in  honor,  there  is  no  inci 
dent  of  the  past  thirty  years  which  should  be 
studied  by  every  American  with  more  care.  Ger 
many  began  her  attack  on  the  world  long  before 
1914.  She  bullied  here,  and  she  schemed  and 
plotted  there,  but  she  was  at  work  for  years.  In 
1898  she  tried  to  range  the  countries  of  Europe 
against  us,  as  we  went  to  war  with  Spain.  Eng 
land  stood  our  friend  and  kept  her  off.  Germany 
sent  a  fleet  meddling  into  Manila  Harbor  to  an 
noy  and  threaten  Admiral  Dewey.  He  refused  to 
be  frightened  by  them  ho\vever  and  as  an  English 
squadron  which  was  also  there  played  the  part  of 
a  good  friend,  the  German  admiral  had  his  trip 
for  nothing. 

Later,  about  a  year  after  Mr.  Roosevelt  became 


PRESIDENT  95 

President,  the  German  Kaiser  discovered  a  way, 
as  he  thought,  to  grab  some  territory  in  South 
America.  Our  Monroe  Doctrine,  which  insures 
peace  in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  by  forbidding 
European  nations  to  seize  land  here,  was  an  ob 
stacle  to  the  Kaiser.  He  disliked  it.  But  taking 
as  pretext  the  fact  that  some  people  in  Venezuela 
owed  money  to  various  Europeans,  including  Ger 
mans,  he  induced  England  and  Italy  to  join  in 
sending  a  fleet  for  a  blockade  of  the  Venezuelan 
coast.  The  English  and  Italians  agreed,  before 
long,  to  arbitrate  their  difficulty  with  Venezuela, 
and  moreover  they  had  no  intention  of  seizing  land. 
The  German  plan  was  quite  different.  They 
threatened  to  bombard  Venezuelan  towns,  and  we 
know  enough  now  of  their  methods  to  say  that 
they  were  hoping  for  something  which  might  serve 
as  an  excuse  for  landing  troops  and  taking  posses 
sion  of  towns  and  territory.  This  was  in  defiance 
of  our  Monroe  Doctrine ;  it  aimed  at  setting  up  an 
Emperor's  colonies  in  South  America,  and  putting 
the  peace  of  both  South  and  North  America  into 
danger.  Mr.  Roosevelt  did  not  mean  to  allow  it. 
But  consider  the  situation.  Germany  was  the 
foremost  military  power  of  the  world.  Her  army 
was  almost  the  greatest ;  probably  the  best  trained 
and  equipped.  Ours  was  one  of  the  smallest. 
Germany  was  not  engaged  in  difficulties  elsewhere. 


96  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

She  faced  us  across  no  barriers  but  the  sea.  No 
great  French  and  British  armies  held  the  lines 
against  her,  as  they  did  in  later  years  when  once 
more  she  threatened  America.  No  mighty  British 
fleet  held  the  seas  and  kept  the  German  Navy 
cooped  up  where  it  could  do  no  harm, —  except  to 
such  merchant  ships,  passenger  steamers  and  hos 
pital  boats  as  it  could  strike  from  under  the  water. 
We  faced  Germany  alone.  But  we  had  two 
means  of  defense.  One  of  them  was  Admiral 
Dewey  and  his  ships.  The  first  of  them,  however, 
and  the  only  one  needed,  was  the  cool-headed  and 
brave-hearted  man  in  the  White  House. 

He  told  the  German  Ambassador,  quietly  and 
without  bluster,  that  unless  the  Kaiser  agreed  to 
arbitrate  his  quarrel  with  Venezuela,  and  unless 
he  agreed  within  a  short  time,  ten  days  or  less, 
Admiral  Dewey  would  be  ordered  to  Venezuela  to 
protect  it  against  a  German  attack.  The  German 
ambassador  said  that,  of  course,  as  the  All  Highest 
Kaiser  had  refused  once  before  to  arbitrate,  there 
could  be  nothing  done  about  it.  All  Highests  do 
not  arbitrate.  People  simply  have  to  step  aside. 

President  Roosevelt  informed  the  German  Am 
bassador  that  this  meant  war.  A  few  days  later 
when  the  German  Ambassador  was  again  at  the 
White  House,  the  President  asked  if  the  Kaiser 
had  changed  his  mind.  The  Ambassador  seemed 


Courtesy   of  Charles   Scribner's   Sons. 

THE    ROUGH    RIDER 

With  Mr.  Punch's  best  ivishes  to  Colonel  Roosevelt,  President  of 
the  United  States. 

(A   Cartoon   in    Punch   when   Colonel    Roosevelt    became    President.) 


PRESIDENT  97 

to  think  that  it  was  a  joke.  The  Kaiser  change 
his  mind  at  the  bidding  of  a  Yankee  President! 
It  was  almost  funny ! 

"  All  right,"  said  President  Roosevelt,  "  I  can 
change  my  mind.  Admiral  Dewey  will  not  even 
wait  until  Tuesday  to  start  for  Venezuela.  He 
will  go  on  Monday.  If  you  are  cabling  to  Berlin, 
please  tell  them  that." 

The  pompous  Ambassador  was  much  flustered. 
He  hurried  away,  but  returned  in  about  a  day  and 
a  half,  still  out  of  breath. 

"  Mr.  President,"  he  said,  "  His  Imperial 
Majesty  the  Emperor  has  agreed  to  arbitrate  with 
Venezuela." 

So  there  was  no  delay,  no  long  and  distressing 
argument ;  and  there  was  no  war.  The  President 
could  do  this  because  he  knew  his  countrymen ;  he 
knew  that  they  were  not  cowards.  He  knew  they 
never  had  failed  to  back  up  their  leader  in  the 
White  House.  He  knew  that  no  President  need 
worry  about  loyalty  when  he  tells  America  that  a 
foreign  enemy  is  making  threats.  He  has  seen  his 
courageous  predecessor,  Grover  Cleveland,  rouse 
America,  as  one  man,  over  another  Venezuelan 
incident,  a  dozen  or  more  years  before.  And  he 
knew  that  the  only  occasion  when  America  had 
ever  seemed  about  to  fall  into  doubt  and  hesitation 
in  time  of  danger,  was  when  that  doubt  and 


98  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

hesitation  began  in  the  White  House, —  in  the 
administration  of  Buchanan,  before  the  Civil  War. 
America  will  always  support  her  President,  if  war 
threatens, —  but  America  expects  him  to  show 
leadership.  Timidity  in  the  leader  will  make 
timidity  in  the  nation. 

So  the  Kaiser  changed  his  mind  and  gave  in, — 
why?  Because  he  knew  that  there  was  a  Presi 
dent  in  the  White  House  whose  words  were  easy 
to  understand ;  they  did  not  have  to  be  interpreted 
nor  explained.  And  moreover,  when  these  words 
were  uttered,  the  President  would  make  them 
good,  every  one. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   LION    HUNTER 

OTHER  important  events  of  President  Roosevelt's 
administration  will  best  be  described  farther  on. 
For  their  importance  increased  after  he  was  out 
of  office,  and  they  had  a  great  influence  upon  a 
later  campaign. 

Here,  it  should  be  said  that  in  1904,  as  the  term 
for  which  he  was  acting  as  Mr.  McKinley's  suc 
cessor,  drew  toward  an  end,  he  was  nominated  by 
the  Republican  Party  to  succeed  himself.  There 
was  some  talk  of  opposition  within  his  party,  es 
pecially  from  the  friends  of  "  big  business  "  who 
thought  that  he  was  not  sufficiently  reverent  and 
submissive  to  the  moneyed  interests.  This  op 
position  took  the  form  of  a  move  to  nominate 
Senator  Hanna.  But  the  Senator  died,  and  the 
talk  of  opposition  which  was  mostly  moonshine, 
faded  away. 

When  the  campaign  came  in  the  autumn  of 
1904,  his  opponent  was  the  Democratic  nominee, 
Judge  Parker,  also  from  New  York.  Mr.  Roose 
velt  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  more  than  two 

99 


ioo          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

million  and  a  half  votes, —  the  largest  majority 
ever  given  to  a  President  in  our  history,  either 
before  or  since  that  time. 

On  the  night  of  election  day  he  issued  a  state 
ment  in  which  he  said :  "  Under  no  circumstances 
will  I  be  a  candidate  for  or  accept  another  nom 
ination."  Of  this  he  writes : 

The  reason  for  my  choice  of  the  exact  phraseology 
used  was  twofold.  In  the  first  place,  many  of  my  sup 
porters  were  insisting  that,  as  I  had  served  only  three 
and  a  half  years  of  my  first  term,  coming  in  from  the 
Vice-Presidency  when  President  McKinley  was  killed, 
I  had  really  had  only  one  elective  term,  so  that  the 
third  term  custom  did  not  apply  to  me;  and  I  wished  to 
repudiate  this  suggestion.  I  believed  then  (and  I  be 
lieve  now)  the  third  term  custom  or  tradition  to  be 
wholesome,  and  therefore,  I  was  determined  to  regard 
its  substance,  refusing  to  quibble  over  the  words  usually 
employed  to  express  it.  On  the  other  hand  I  did  not 
wish  simply  and  specifically  to  say  that  I  would  not  be 
a  candidate  for  the  nomination  in  1908,  because  if  I 
had  specified  the  year  when  I  would  not  be  a  candidate, 
it  would  have  been  widely  accepted  as  meaning  that  I 
intended  to  be  a  candidate  some  other  year ;  and  I  had 
no  such  intention,  and  had  no  idea  that  I  would  ever  be 
a  candidate  again.  Certain  newspaper  men  did  ask 
me  if  I  intended  to  apply  my  prohibition  to  1912,  and 
I  answered  that  I  was  not  thinking  of  1912,  nor  of 
1920,  nor  of  1940,  and  that  I  must  decline  to  say  any 
thing  whatever  except  what  appeared  in  my  statement.1 

1 "  Autobiography,"  pp.  422-3. 


THE  LION  HUNTER  "         ''ioY 

From  March  4,  1905,  until  March  4,  1909,  he 
was  an  elected  President,  not  a  President  who  had 
succeeded  to  the  office  through  the  death  of  an 
other.  When  the  end  of  his  term  approached  he 
threw  his  influence  in  favor  of  the  nomination  of 
Mr.  William  H.  Taft,  Secretary  of  War  in  his 
Cabinet.  He  could  have  had  the  nomination  him 
self  if  he  had  wished  it;  indeed  he  had  to  take  pre 
cautions  against  being  nominated.  But  Mr.  Taft 
was  nominated,  and  in  November,  1908,  was 
elected  over  Mr.  Bryan,  who  was  then  running  for 
the  Presidency  for  the  third  time. 

President  Roosevelt  and  President-elect  Taft 
drove  up  Pennsylvania  Avenue  to  the  Capitol  to 
gether,  March  4,  1909,  in  a  cold  gale  of  wind, 
which  had  followed  a  sudden  blizzard.  The 
weather  was  an  omen  of  the  stormy  change  which 
was  coming  over  the  friendship  of  these  two  men. 
An  hour  or  two  later  it  was  President  Taft  who 
drove  back  to  the  White  House,  while  Mr.  Roose 
velt,  once  more  a  private  citizen,  was  hurrying  to 
his  home  in  Oyster  Bay,  to  get  ready  for  his  hunt 
ing  trip  to  Africa. 

This  was  the  vacation  to  which  he  had  been 
looking  forward  for  years.  He  had  long  been  a 
friend  of  a  number  of  famous  hunters,  and  had 
corresponded  with  and  received  visits  from  some 


1,02         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  them.  Chief  among  these  was  Mr.  Frederick 
Selous,  one  of  the  greatest  of  African  hunters. 
Those  who  have  read  any  of  Rider  Haggard's 
fine  stories  of  adventure  (especially  "  King  Sol 
omon's  Mines  "  and  "  Allan  Quartermain  " )  will 
be  interested  to  know  that  Mr.  Selous  was  the 
original  of  Quartermain.  Adventures  like  these 
of  Selous,  the  opportunity  to  see  the  marvelous 
African  country,  and  the  chance  to  shoot  the  dan 
gerous  big  game,  made  Roosevelt  long  to  visit 
Africa. 

So  he  headed  a  scientific  expedition  sent  out 
by  the  Smithsonian  Institution  to  collect  specimens 
for  the  National  Museum  at  Washington.  With 
him  went  his  son  Kermit,  a  student  at  Harvard ; 
and  three  American  naturalists.  They  left  Amer 
ica  only  two  or  three  weeks  after  his  term  as 
President  had  ended,  and  they  came  out  of  the 
African  wilderness  at  Khartoum  about  a  year 
later.  With  friends  whom  they  met  in  Africa, 
English  and  American  hunters,  and  a  long  train 
of  native  bearers  and  scouts,  they  visited  the  parts 
of  Africa  richest  in  game,  and  killed  lions,  leop 
ards,  hyenas,  elephants,  rhinoceros,  hippopotamus, 
zebra,  giraffe,  buffalo,  and  dozens  of  other  kinds 
of  animals.  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Kermit  shot 
about  a  dozen  trophies  for  themselves ;  otherwise 
nothing  was  killed  which  was  not  intended  as  a 


THE  LION  HUNTER  103 

museum  specimen  or  for  meat.  No  useless  butch 
ery  of  animals  was  allowed;  often  at  great  incon 
venience  and  even  danger,  animals  were  avoided 
or  driven  off  rather  than  let  them  be  killed  need 
lessly.  Some  of  the  finest  groups  of  mounted 
animals  in  the  country  are  now  standing  in  the 
National  Museum,  as  a  result  of  this  trip. 

They  saw  many  wonderful  sights.  They  saw 
a  band  of  Nandi  warriors,  fierce  savages,  naked, 
and  armed  only  with  shields  and  long  spears,  at 
tack  and  kill  a  big  lion.  Kermit  Roosevelt  took 
photographs  of  most  of  the  large  game,  coming 
up  to  close  quarters  in  order  to  get  his  pictures. 
He  took  two  or  three  photographs  of  a  herd  of 
wild  elephants  in  the  forest,  going  at  great  risk 
within  twenty-five  yards  of  the  herd  to  be  sure  to 
get  a  good  view. 

One  day's  hunting,  which  Mr.  Roosevelt  de 
scribes,  shows  what  the  country  was  like,  how  full 
it  was  of  all  kinds  of  animals.  Leaving  camp  at 
seven  in  the  morning  they  were  out  altogether  over 
fifteen  hours.  They  were  after  a  lion,  so  did  not 
look  for  other  game.  They  soon  passed  some 
zebra,  and  antelope,  but  left  them  alone.  The 
country  was  a  dry,  brown  grassland,  with  few 
trees,  and  in  some  places  seems  to  have  looked  like 
our  Western  prairie.  At  noon  they  sighted  three 
rhinoceros,  which  they  tried  to  avoid,  as  they  did 


104          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

not  wish  to  shoot  them.  Of  course,  in  such  cir 
cumstances  it  is  necessary  to  do  nothing  to  disturb 
the  temper  of  the  animals  —  stupid,  short-sighted 
beasts  —  or  else  in  their  anger  or  alarm  they  will 
blindly  charge  the  hunter,  who  then  is  forced  to 
shoot  to  save  himself  from  being  tossed  and  gored 
on  that  great  horn.  There  was  a  hyena  disturbing 
the  other  game,  and  as  these  are  savage  nuisances, 
Mr.  Roosevelt  shot  this  one  at  three  hundred  and 
fifty  paces.  While  the  porters  were  taking  the 
skin,  he  could  not  help  laughing,  he  says,  at  find 
ing  their  party  in  the  center  of  a  great  plain,  stared 
at  from  all  sides  by  enough  wild  animals  to  stock 
a  circus.  Vultures  were  flying  overhead.  The 
three  rhinoceros  were  gazing  at  them,  about  half 
a  mile  away.  Wildebeest  (sometimes  called  gnu) 
which  look  something  like  the  American  buffalo  or 
bison,  and  hartebeest,  stood  around  in  a  ring,  look 
ing  on.  Four  or  five  antelope  came  in  closer  to 
see  what  was  happening,  and  a  zebra  trotted  by, 
neighing  and  startling  the  rhinoceros. 

After  a  rest  for  luncheon,  they  went  on,  looking 
for  lions.  Two  wart-hogs  jumped  up,  and  Mr. 
Roosevelt  shot  the  biggest  of  them.  By  this  time 
it  was  getting  late  in  the  afternoon;  time  for  lions 
to  be  about.  At  last  they  saw  one ;  a  big  lioness. 
She  ran  along  the  bed  of  a  stream,  crouching  so 
as  not  to  be  seen  in  the  failing  light.  The  two 


THE  LION  HUNTER  105 

hunters  rode  past  and  would  have  missed  her  if 
one  of  the  native  followers  had  not  sighted  her  a 
second  time.  Then  Roosevelt  and  the  other 
hunter  left  their  horses,  and  came  in  close  on  foot. 
This  is  perhaps  as  dangerous  as  any  hunting  in 
Africa.  A  man  must  be  cool  and  a  good  shot  to 
go  after  lions;  sooner  or  later  almost  every  lion 
hunter  either  gets  badly  hurt  or  gets  killed. 

This  time  all  went  well;  Roosevelt. hit  her  with 
his  first  shot;  ran  in  close  and  finished  her.  She 
weighed  over  three  hundred  pounds.  The  porters 
—  much  excited,  as  they  always  are  at  the  death 
of  a  lion  —  wished  to  carry  the  whole  body  with 
out  skinning  it,  back  to  camp.  While  they  were 
lashing  it  to  a  pole  another  lion  began  to  growl 
hungrily.  The  night  was  dark,  without  a  moon, 
and  the  work  of  getting  back  was  hard  for  the 
porters,  as  well  as  rather  terrifying  to  them. 
Lions  were  grunting  all  about ;  twice  one  of  them 
kept  alongside  the  men  as  they  walked, —  much  to 
their  discomfort.  Then  a  rhinoceros,  nearby,  let 
of  a  series  of  snorts,  like  a  locomotive.  This  did 
not  cheer  up  the  porters  to  any  great  degree. 
Roosevelt  and  the  other  white  hunter  had  trouble 
to  keep  them  together  and  to  keep  on  the  watch, 
with  their  rifles  ready  to  drive  ofT  any  animals 
which  might  attack. 

At  last  they  came  to  the  camp  of  a  tribe  of  sav- 


io6         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ages  called  Masai.  As  they  were  still  four  miles 
from  their  own  camp  and  as  the  porters  were 
about  exhausted  from  carrying  the  lion,  they  de 
cided  to  go  in  there,  skin  the  lion  and  rest  for  a 
while.  There  was  some  trouble  about  this,  as 
the  Masai  feared  that  the  scent  of  the  dead  lion 
would  scare  their  cattle.  They  agreed  at  last, 
however,  admitted  the  white  men  and  the  porters, 
and  stood  about,  in  the  fire-light,  leaning  on  their 
spears,  and  laughing,  while  the  lion  was  being 
skinned.  They  gave  Roosevelt  milk  to  drink  and 
seemed  pleased  to  have  a  call  from  "  Bwana 
Makuba,"  the  Great  Chief,  as  the  porters  called 
him. 

So  here  was  an  Ex-President  of  the  United 
States,  not  many  months  from  his  work  as  Chief 
Magistrate  in  the  Capitol  of  a  civilized  nation, 
talking  to  a  group  of  savages,  who  in  their 
dwellings,  weapons,  clothing  and  customs  had 
hardly  changed  in  three  thousand  years;  the 
twentieth  century  A.  D.  meeting  the  tenth  century 
B.C. 

At  ten  o'clock  they  got  back  to  their  own  camp, 
and  after  a  hot  bath,  sat  down  to  a  supper  of  eland 
venison  and  broiled  spurfowl, — "  and  surely  no 
supper  ever  tasted  more  delicious." 

Another  day,  when  hunting  with  the  same  com 
panion  he  had  the  experience  of  being  charged  by 


THE  LION  HUNTER  107 

a  wounded  lion.  It  was  a  big,  male  lion,  with  a 
black  and  yellow  mane.  They  chased  him  on 
horseback  for  about  two  miles.  Then  he  stopped 
and  hid  behind  a  bush.  A  shot  wounded  him 
slightly  and  Mr.  Tarlton,  Roosevelt's  companion, 
an  experienced  lion-hunter,  told  him  that  the  lion 
was  sure  to  charge. 

Again  I  knelt  and  fired;  but  the  mass  of  hair  on  the 
lion  made  me  think  he  was  nearer  than 'he  was,  and  I 
undershot,  inflicting  a  flesh  wound  that  was  neither 
crippling  nor  fatal.  He  was  already  grunting  savagely 
and  tossing  his  tail  erect,  with  his  head  held  low ;  and 
at  the  shot  the  great  sinewy  beast  came  toward  us  with 
the  speed  of  a  greyhound.  Tarlton  then  very  properly 
fired,  for  lion  hunting  is  no  child's  play,  and  it  is  not 
good  to  run  risks.  Ordinarily  it  is  a  very  mean  thing 
to  experience  joy  at  a  friend's  miss;  but  this  was  not 
an  ordinary  case,  and  I  felt  keen  delight  when  the  bullet 
from  the  badly  sighted  rifle  missed,  striking  the  ground 
many  yards  short.  I  was  sighting  carefully  from  my 
knee,  and  I  knew  I  had  the  lion  all  right ;  for  though  he 
galloped  at  a  great  pace  he  came  on  steadily  —  ears  laid 
back,  and  uttering  terrific  coughing  grunts  —  and  there 
was  now  no  question  of  making  allowance  for  distance, 
nor,  as  he  was  out  in  the  open,  for  the  fact  that  he  had 
not  before  been  distinctly  visible.  The  bead  of  my  fore 
sight  was  exactly  on  the  center  of  his  chest  as  I 
pressed  the  trigger,  and  the  bullet  went  as  true  as  if 
the  place  had  been  plotted  with  dividers.  The  blow 
brought  him  up  all  standing,  and  he  fell  forward  on 
his  head. 


io8         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  soft-nosed  Winchester  bullet  had  gone  straight 
through  the  chest  cavity,  smashing  the  lungs  and  the 
big  blood-vessels  of  the  heart.  Painfully  he  recovered 
his  feet,  and  tried  to  come  on,  his  ferocious  courage 
holding  out  to  the  last;  but  he  staggered  and  turned 
from  side  to  side,  unable  to  stand  firmly,  still  less  to 
advance  at  a  faster  pace  than  a  walk.  He  had  not  ten 
seconds  to  live;  but  it  is  a  sound  principle  to  take  no 
chances  with  lions.  Tarlton  hit  him  with  his  second 
bullet  probably  in  the  shoulder ;  and  with  my  next  shot  I 
broke  his  neck.  I  had  stopped  him  when  he  was  still  a 
hundred  yards  away,  and  certainly  no  finer  sight  could 
be  imagined  than  that  of  this  great  maned  lion  as  he 
charged.1 

To  the  man  who  can  shoot  straight,  and  shoot 
just  as  straight  at  a  savage  animal  as  at  a  target, 
African  game-hunting  is  for  part  of  the  time  not 
very  dangerous.  Nine  or  ten  lions  or  elephants 
or  rhinoceros  may  be  killed,  without  seeming  risk. 
The  tenth  time  something  unexpected  happens, 
and  death  comes  very  near  to  the  hunter. 

In  shooting  an  elephant  in  the  forest  one  day, 
Roosevelt  had  what  was  perhaps  his  closest  call 
since  the  bear  nearly  killed  him,  years  before  in 
Idaho.  He  had  just  shot  an  elephant,  when  there 
came  a  surprise: 

But  at  that  very  instant,  before  there  was  a  moment's 
time  in  which  to  reload,  the  thick  bushes  parted  im- 

1 "  African  Game  Trails,"  pp.  192-3. 


THE  LION  HUNTER  109 

mediately  on  my  left  front,  and  through  them  surged 
the  vast  bulk  of  a  charging  bull  elephant,  the  matted 
mass  of  tough  creepers  snapping  like  packthread  before 
his  rush.  He  was  so  close  that  he  could  have  touched 
me  with  his  trunk.  I  leaped  to  one  side  and  dodged  be 
hind  a  tree  trunk,  opening  the  rifle,  throwing  out  the 
empty  shells,  and  slipping  in  two  cartridges.  Mean 
time  Cunninghame  fired  right  and  left,  at  the  same  time 
throwing  himself  into  the  bushes  on  the  other  side. 
Both  his  bullets  went  home,  and  the  bull  stopped  short 
in  his  charge,  wheeled,  and  immediately  disappeared  in 
the  thick  cover.  We  ran  forward,  but  the  forest  had 
closed  over  his  wake.  We  heard  him  trumpet  shrilly, 
and  then  all  sounds  ceased.1 

1 "  African  Game  Trails,"  p.  251. 


CHAPTER  XII 

EUROPE  AND  AMERICA 

AT  Khartoum  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  his  son  were 
joined  by  other  members  of  his  family.  They 
all  crossed  to  Europe,  for  he  had  been  invited 
by  the  rulers  and  learned  bodies  of  a  num 
ber  of  countries  to  pay  them  a  visit.  He  went 
to  Italy,  Austria,  Germany,  Norway,  Sweden, 
Holland,  France,  Denmark,  Belgium  and  Eng 
land,  receiving  the  highest  compliments  from  their 
rulers,  honorary  degrees  from  the  universities, 
and  a  welcome  from  the  people  everywhere  which 
had  been  given  with  such  heartiness  to  no  other 
American  since  General  Grant  traveled  round 
the  world  after  the  Civil  War. 

In  Norway  he  spoke  to  the  Nobel  Committee 
in  thanks  for  the  Peace  Prize  which  they  had 
awarded  him  after  the  Russo-Japanese  War.  In 
Germany,  the  Kaiser  ordered  a  review  of  troops 
for  him;  and  he  was  received  by  the  University 
of  Berlin.  In  Paris,  he  addressed  the  famous  in 
stitution  of  learning,  the  Sorbonne.  The  Eng- 
no 


EUROPE  AND  AMERICA  in 

lish  universities  received  him,  and  gave  him  their 
honorary  degrees.  London  made  him  a  "  free 
man."  His  speeches  before  the  learned  men  of 
Europe  might  not  have  been  extraordinary  for 
a  university  teacher,  but  when  we  think  that  his 
life  had  alternated  between  the  hustle  of  politics, 
the  career  of  a  ranchman,  of  a  soldier,  and  of  a 
hunter  of  big  game,  it  is  evident  that  we  shall  have 
to  search  long  and  far  among  our  public  men  be 
fore  we  can  find  any  to  match  him  in  the  variety 
of  his  interests  and  achievements. 

In  England,  King  Edward  VII  had  just  died, 
and  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  appointed  by  President 
Taft  as  the  American  representative  at  the  funeral. 
There  was  a  gathering  in  London  of  thirteen 
reigning  monarchs,  and  many  curious  stories  are 
told  about  the  occasion.  Of  course  the  Kaiser 
was  there,  strutting  about  and  trying  to  patronize 
everybody.  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  been  politely  re 
ceived  by  the  Kaiser  and  believed,  as  did  every 
one,  that  beneath  his  arrogant  manners,  there  was 
a  great  deal  of  ability.  But  he  did  not  allow  him 
self  to  be  treated  by  the  "  All  Highest  "  with  mag 
nificent  condescension. 

A  story  is  repeated,  of  which  one  version  is 
that  the  Kaiser  suddenly  called  out,  at  some  re 
ception  : 

"  Oh,  Colonel  Roosevelt,  I  wish  to  see  you  be- 


ii2          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fore  I  leave  London,  and  can  give  you  just  thirty 
minutes,  to-morrow  afternoon  at  two.'* 

"  That's  very  good  of  Your  Majesty,"  replied 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  "  and  I'll  be  there.  But  unfortu 
nately  I  have  an  engagement,  so  that  I'll  only  be 
able  to  give  you  twenty  minutes." 

Another  story  concerns  a  little  boy, —  the 
Crown  Prince  of  one  of  the  countries  where 
royal  folk  have  simpler  and  better  manners  than 
in  Germany.  He  and  his  parents  and  other  per 
sons  of  royal  rank  were  at  the  palace  where  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  staying.  As  any  man  would  know, 
boys  are  interested  in  much  the  same  things 
whether  they  are  princes  or  not,  and  this  one  was 
greatly  taken  by  Mr.  Roosevelt's  stories  of  hunt 
ing,  and  by  being  taught  some  of  the  games  which 
the  American  father  and  his  boys  had  played  in 
the  White  House,  not  many  years  before.  So  it 
happened  that  as  a  group  of  the  visitors,  including 
two  or  three  kings  and  queens,  stepped  out  of  one 
of  the  rooms  of  the  palace  into  a  corridor  one 
evening,  they  were  astonished  to  see  a  gentleman 
down  on  his  hands  and  knees  on  a  rug,  playing 
"  bear  "  with  a  little  boy.  The  gentleman  was  the 
Ex-President  of  the  United  States,  and  the  boy 
was  the  future  King  of  one  of  the  countries  of 
Europe. 

Roosevelt's  return  to  New  York  was  the  signal 


Copyright,  1902,  by  Clinedinst,  Washington,  D.C. 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  SADDLE 


EUROPE  AND  AMERICA          113 

for  a  tremendous  reception.  New  York  outdid 
itself  in  salutes,  parades,  and  wildly  cheering 
crowds.  Nothing  like  it  had  been  seen  before. 
Even  after  the  excitement  of  the  first  day  of  his 
return,  he  could  not  go  out  without  being  sur 
rounded  by  cheering  crowds.  He  knew  that  it 
could  not  last,  and  said  to  his  sister :  "  Soon  they 
will  be  throwing  rotten  apples  at  me." 

He  was  right.  A  period  was  about  to  begin 
when  he  was  to  be  defeated  in  every  campaign 
in  which  he  engaged.  All  the  enemies  he  had 
made  in  his  long  fight  for  better  government  — 
and  they  were  many  and  bitter  enemies  —  were 
to  join  hands  with  all  the  people  who  opposed  him 
just  because  they  disliked  him.  He  was  to  part 
company  from  some  of  his  nearest  friends,  and 
persistently  to  be  reviled,  misunderstood  and  at 
tacked.  Yet  he  was  to  rally  around  him  a  body 
of  devoted  friends,  and  make  these  the  greatest 
years  of  his  life. 

It  is  partly  comic  and  partly  sad,  to  look  back 
and  consider  the  things  for  which  Roosevelt  had 
fought  in  his  public  life,  and  to  recall  that  a  fight 
had  to  be  made  for  things  like  these ;  that  the 
man  advocating  them  had  to  stand  unlimited 
abuse.  He  had  been  abused  for  trying  to  stop 
the  sale  of  liquor  to  children,  and  opposed  in  his 
efforts  to  prevent  the  making  of  cigars  in  filthy 


ii4         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

bed-roooms.  He  had  been  violently  attacked  for 
enforcing  the  liquor  laws  of  New  York.  Law 
yers  and  public  men  had  grown  red  with  anger 
as  they  denounced  him  as  a  tyrant,  and  an  enemy 
to  the  Constitution,  because  he  wished  to  stop 
a  dishonest  system  of  rebates  by  the  railroads.  A 
man  looks  back  and  wonders  if  he  were  living 
among  sane  people,  or  in  a  mad-house,  when  he  re 
calls  that  Roosevelt  was  viciously  attacked  because 
he  proposed  that  the  meat-packers  of  this  country 
should  not  be  allowed  to  sell  to  their  countrymen 
rotten  and  diseased  products  which  foreign  coun 
tries  refused  even  to  admit.  Sneers  greeted  his 
attempts  to  prevent  poisons  being  sold  as  medi 
cine,  and  laudanum  being  peddled  to  little  children 
as  soothing-syrup.  His  fight  to  prevent  greedy 
folk  from  destroying  the  forests,  wasting  the 
minerals,  and  spoiling  the  water  supplies  of 
America  had  to  be  made  in  the  face  of  every  sort 
of  legal  trickery  and  the  meanest  of  personal 
abuse. 

The  Republican  Party  had  been  founded  dur 
ing  one  of  the  greatest  efforts  for  human  free 
dom  ever  made  in  our  history.  In  its  long  years 
in  power,  and  in  the  amazing  increase  in  pros 
perity  and  wealth  in  America,  it  had  become  the 
defender  of  wealth.  Many  of  its  highest  and 
most  powerful  men  could  see  no  farther  than  the 


EUROPE  AND  AMERICA          115 

cash  drawer.  Human  rights  and  wrongs,  human 
suffering,  or  any  attempt  to  prevent  such  suffer 
ings,  simply  did  not  interest  them.  They  were 
not  cruel  men  personally,  but  they  had  heard  re 
peated  for  so  many  years  that  this  or  the  other 
thing  could  not  be  done  "  because  it  would  hurt 
business,"  that  they  had  come  to  worship  "  busi 
ness  "  as  a  savage  bows  his  head  before  an  idol. 
Many  of  them  could  give  money  for  an  orphan 
asylum  or  a  children's  hospital,  and  yet  on  the 
same  day,  vote  to  kill  a  bill  aimed  to  prevent 
child-labor.  To  pass  such  a  bill  as  that  would 
"  hurt  business." 

The  Democratic  Party  was  no  better.  It  was 
simply  weaker,  and  usually  less  intelligent. 
Wherever  it  was  powerful,  it,  too,  was  apt  to  be 
the  servant  of  corruption.  The  politicians  of 
both  parties  loved  to  keep  up  a  continual  fight 
about  the  tariff,  to  distract  public  attention  from 
other  important  subjects. 

There  had  been  disagreements  in  the  Repub 
lican  Party  for  a  number  of  years.  These  had 
gone  on  during  the  Roosevelt  administration. 
In  the  main,  these  struggles  can  be  described  by 
saying  that  President  Roosevelt  and  those  who 
agreed  with  him  were  looking  out  for  the  advan 
tage  of  the  many,  and  for  the  welfare  and  health 
of  great  masses  of  the  people.  His  opponents 


n6          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

were  more  interested  to  see  that  nothing  checked 
the  activities  of  great  corporations,  railroads,  and 
manufacturing  interests.  They  sincerely  believed 
that  this  was  the  first  concern  of  all  true  patriots. 
Roosevelt  wished  every  man  to  have  a  square 
deal,  an  equal  chance,  so  far  as  possible,  to  earn 
as  good  a  living  as  he  could.  His  opponents 
thought  that  if  the  great  business  interests  could 
only  go  on,  as  they  liked,  without  being  annoyed 
by  the  government,  they  would  be  able  to  give 
employment  to  almost  everybody,  and  to  all  the 
unfortunates,  who  were  crushed  in  the  struggle, 
they  would  give  chanty. 

Between  these  two  groups  there  was  a  cease 
less  fight  all  the  years  Roosevelt  was  in  the  White 
House.  He  had  been  strongly  approved  at  the 
polls ;  many  of  the  measures  he  advocated  had  been 
made  laws  by  Congress.  So  he  thought,  and  the 
larger  part  of  the  Republican  Party  thought,  when 
Mr.  Taft  became  President,  that  the  measures 
which  they  had  approved  were  going  to  be  ad 
vanced  still  further. 

It  soon  appeared  that  they  were  in  for  a  dis 
appointment.  Mr.  Taft  proved  friendly  to  the 
older  politicians;  the  younger  and  progressive 
men  were  not  in  favor.  He  made  his  associates, 
and  chose  as  his  advisers,  the  men  who  called 


EUROPE  AND  AMERICA          117 

Mr.  Roosevelt  "  rash,"  "  a  socialist,"  "  an  an 
archist/'  Many  of  the  men  who  surrounded 
President  Taft  were  honest  and  patriotic.  But 
there  were  also  a  number  of  stick-in-the-mud 
statesmen, —  old  gentlemen  who  had  been  say 
ing  the  same  thing,  thinking  the  same  things, 
doing  the  same  things,  for  forty  years.  To 
change,  to  be  up  with  the  times,  to  progress,  to 
alter  methods  to  meet  new  conditions,  struck 
them  as  simply  indecent.  Their  idea  of  a 
happy  national  life  was  great  "  prosperity  "  for 
a  fortunate  few,  a  lesser  degree  of  success 
for  some  others  who  could  cling  to  the  chariot 
wheels  of  the  rich,  and, —  charity  for  the  rest. 
That  was  always  their  answer  to  the  old,  hard 
problem  of  wealth  and  poverty.  Like  quack 
doctors  they  would  try  to  cure  the  symp 
toms,  rather  than  like  wise  physicians  seek  to 
find  the  causes.  They  were  like  the  Tories  in 
our  Revolution  who  were  for  King  George 
against  George  Washington,  because  King  George 
was  the  legal  King  of  the  American  colonies,  or 
like  the  Northern  pro-slavery  men,  who  defended 
slavery  because  it  was  permitted  by  the  Constitu 
tion  and  the  slaves  were  legal  "  property."  The 
Constitution  was,  for  them,  an  instrument  to  be 
used  to  block  all  change,  whether  good  or  bad. 


ii8          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Other  men,  near  to  President  Taft,  were 
neither  patriotic  nor  innocent.  They  were 
shrewd,  powerful  Bosses, —  men  of  the  type  of 
Platt.  Only,  Mr.  Taft  did  not  stand  on  the 
alert  with  them,  as  Roosevelt  had  done  as  Gov 
ernor,  working  with  them  when  he  could,  and 
fighting  them  when  they  went  wrong.  He  al 
lowed  them  to  influence  his  administration,  and, 
at  last,  accepted  a  nomination  engineered  by  them 
for  their  own  selfish  purposes. 

The  Republicans  who  followed  President  Taft, 
the  "  stand-patters,"  believed  in  property  rights 
first,  and  human  rights  second.  If  any  of  them 
did  not  actually  believe  this,  they  joined  people 
who  did  thoroughly  believe  it,  and  so  their  action 
counted  toward  putting  that  belief  into  practice. 
The  others,  the  "  Insurgents  "  or  Progressive  Re 
publicans,  (later  called  the  Bull  Moose)  believed 
in  human  rights  first.  That  is  as  near  as  the 
thing  can  be  stated,  remembering  that  it  was  a 
disputed  point,  with  good  men  on  both  sides.  The 
stand-patters  said  the  Progressives  were  cranks, — 
visionary  and  impractical;  the  Progressives  re 
plied  that  it  was  better  to  be  both  of  these  things 
than  to  be  quite  so  near  to  the  earth  and  selfish 
as  Mr.  Taft's  followers  or  managers.  The 
events  of  later  years  have  not  borne  out  the  con 
tention  that  Roosevelt  was  "  rash  "  and  "  dan- 


EUROPE  AND  AMERICA          119 

gerous  ";  while  the  charge  that  Mr.  Taft  made  a 
President  more  pleasing  to  the  Bosses  than  to  the 
people  was  amply  proved,  in  the  campaign  of 
1912. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  BULL  MOOSE 

IT  was  not  personal  ambition  which  made  Roose 
velt  become  the  leader  of  the  revolt  in  the  Re 
publican  Party,  and  later  head  a  new  party.  The 
revolt  had  been  growing  while  he  was  in  Africa, 
and  he  was  long  besought  to  become  its  leader. 
At  first,  Senator  La  Follette  seemed  a  possible 
leader,  but  he  broke  down  in  a  nervous  attack,  and 
the  belief  that  he  was  not  the  man  for  the  place 
has  been  justified  by  later  events. 

As  President  Taft's  administration  drew  to  an 
end,  in  1911  and  1912,  it  was  clear  that  he  was 
steadily  losing  the  public  confidence.  State  elec 
tions,  and  other  straws,  showed  how  the  wind 
was  blowing.  The  Progressive  Republicans 
pointed  out  to  their  fellow-members  of  the  party 
that  only  where  a  Progressive  ran  for  office  in  a 
state  election  did  the  party  win.  Otherwise  the 
Democrats  were  victorious.  The  lesson  was 
plain;  but  the  stand-patters  did  not  care  to  see 
it.  By  the  beginning  of  1912  it  was  freely  pre 
dicted  in  print  that  the  Democrats  would  nominate 
120 


THE  BULL  MOOSE  121 

Governor  Wilson  of  New  Jersey,  their  strongest 
candidate,  and  that  they  would  win  if  the  Re 
publicans  insisted  on  naming  Mr.  Taft.  But  the 
old-line  Republicans  were  above  taking  advice. 
The  Democrats  were  naturally  gleeful  about  the 
situation;  they  kept  their  faces  straight  and  sol 
emnly  warned  the  Republicans,  in  the  name  of  the 
safety  of  the  country,  not  to  listen  to  the  "  wild 
man,"  Roosevelt,  but  to  be  sure  to  nominate  Mr. 
Taft.  And  the  Republicans  listened  to  the  advice 
of  their  opponents.  "  Whom  the  Gods  would  de 
stroy  they  first  make  mad." 

Roosevelt  had  been  telling  his  friends  that  he 
would  not  run  again ;  that  he  did  not  wish  to  op 
pose  Mr.  Taft,  who  had  been  his  close  friend  and 
associate.  But  neither  he,  nor  the  Republicans 
who  thought  as  he  did,  liked  to  see  their  party 
drift  back  and  back  to  become  the  organization 
for  plunder  which  the  Bosses  would  have  made  it 
long  before,  if  they  had  always  had  a  "  good- 
natured  "  man  in  the  White  House.  When  the 
governors  of  seven  States  —  Michigan,  West  Vir 
ginia,  Wyoming,  Nebraska,  New  Hampshire, 
Missouri  and  Kansas  —  united  in  an  appeal  to 
Roosevelt  for  leadership,  he  began  to  change  his 
mind. 

He  said  in  private,  that  he  knew  it  would  be 
hard,  if  not  impossible,  for  him  to  get  the  nom- 


122         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ination;  President  Taft  had  all  the  machinery  on 
his  side.  He  knew  that  it  meant  parting  with 
many  of  his  best  friends ;  the  older  politicians 
would  mainly  oppose  him;  he  would  have  to  go 
directly  to  the  people  for  his  support,  and  rely 
upon  the  younger  leaders  as  his  lieutenants. 

In  going  straight  to  the  people  he  was  following 
one  of  the  principles  of  the  Insurgent  or  Progres 
sive  Republicans.  In  order  to  fight  the  Bosses, 
and  overcome  the  crooked  and  secret  influence 
of  "  big  business  "  in  politics,  the  Progressives 
were  proposing  various  methods  by  which  it  was 
hoped  the  people  might  rule  more  directly,  and 
prevent  a  few  men  from  overcoming  the  wishes 
of  the  many.  One  of  these  methods  was  the  direct 
primary,  so  that  the  voters  might  choose  their 
candidates  themselves,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  the 
absurd  conventions,  where  large  crowds  of  men 
are  hired  to  fill  the  galleries,  yell  for  one  candi 
date,  and  try  to  out-yell  the  opposing  crowd. 

In  February,  1912,  Roosevelt  announced  that 
he  was  a  candidate  for  the  Republican  nomination. 

"  My  hat  is  in  the  ring,"  he  said. 

The  storm  of  abuse  which  raged  around  him 
now  was  terrific.  All  the  friends  of  fattened 
monopoly  —  and  this  included  many  of  the  most 
powerful  newspapers  —  screamed  aloud  in  their 
fright.  Mostly  they  assailed  him  on  three  counts : 


THE  BULL  MOOSE  123 

that  he  was  "  disloyal  "  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Taft, 
that  he  had  promised  never  to  run  for  President 
again;  and  that  it  meant  the  overthrow  of  the  Re 
public  and  the  setting  up  of  a  monarchy  if  any 
man  ever  disregarded  Washington's  example  and 
was  President  for  three  terms. 

The  charge  of  disloyalty  to  Mr.  Taft  does  not 
deserve  discussion.  Those  who  made  it  never 
stopped  to  think  that  they  were  saying  that  a 
man  should  set  his  personal  friendships  higher 
than  his  regard  for  the  nation ;  that  he  must  sup 
port  his  friend,  even  if  he  believed  that  to  do  so 
would  work  harm  to  the  whole  country.  More 
over,  if  there  had  been  any  disloyalty,  it  had  not 
been  on  Mr.  Roosevelt's  side !  He  had  remained 
true  to  his  principles.  As  for  the  promise  never 
to  run  again,  we  have  already  seen  what  he  said 
about  that.  The  notion  that  Washington  laid 
down  some  law  against  reelecting  a  President  for 
more  than  two  terms  is  an  example  of  how  a 
complete  error  may  pass  into  popular  belief,  and 
become  a  superstition.  Washington  said  and  be 
lieved  the  very  opposite.  He  did  not  wish  a  third 
term  himself,  because  he  was  old  and  weary,  but 
in  regard  to  third  terms  he  seems  to  have  been 
even  more  liberal  than  Roosevelt,  who  disapproved 
of  three  terms  in  succession.  But  Washington 
distinctly  said  that  he  saw  no  reason  why  a  Presi- 


124          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

dent  should  not  be  reflected  as  often  as  the  people 
needed  his  services.  He  said  nothing  about  four, 
eight,  or  twelve  years,  but  in  discussing  this  very 
question  in  a  letter  to  Lafayette,  wrote : 

"  I  can  see  no  propriety  in  precluding  ourselves  from 
the  services  of  any  man,  who  on  some  emergency  shall 
be  deemed  most  capable  of  serving  the  public."  * 

In  the  primary  campaign,  in  the  spring  of  1912, 
the  Progressive  Republicans  and  Mr.  Roosevelt 
proved  their  case  up  to  the  hilt.  In  every  instance 
but  one,  where  it  was  possible  to  get  a  direct  vote 
of  the  people,  Roosevelt  beat  President  Taft,  and 
overwhelmingly.  Thus,  in  California  he  beat  him 
nearly  two  to  one;  in  Illinois,  more  than  two  to 
one,  in  Nebraska  more  than  three  to  one,  in  North 
Dakota  more  than  twenty  to  one,  in  South  Dakota 
more  than  three  to  one.  In  New  Jersey,  Mary 
land,  Oregon  and  Ohio,  Roosevelt  won  decisively ; 
in  Pennsylvania  by  a  tremendous  majority. 
Massachusetts,  the  only  remaining  State  which 
held  a  direct  primary,  where  both  men  were  in 
the  field,  split  nearly  even,  giving  Mr.  Taft  a 
small  lead. 

In  the  face  of  this  clear  indication  of  what  the 
voters  wished,  for  the  Republican  leaders  to  go 

1  Sparks,  "  Writings  of  George  Washington,"  ix.  358. 


THE  BULL  MOOSE  125 

ahead  and  nominate  Mr.  Taft  was  sheer  suicide 
from  a  political  point  of  view.  It  was  also  some 
thing  much  worse :  the  few  denying  the  will  of 
the  many.  This,  of  course,  is  tyranny, —  what 
our  ancestors  revolted  against  when  they  founded 
the  nation.  But  go  ahead  they  did.  It  is  prob 
able  that  even  as  early  as  this  they  had  no  idea  of 
winning  the  election ;  they  merely  intended  to  keep 
the  party  machinery  in  their  own  hands.  Gravely 
talking  about  law  and  the  Constitution  they  pro 
ceeded  to  defy  the  first  principles  of  popular  gov 
ernment. 

By  use  of  the  Southern  delegates,  from  States 
where  the  Republican  Party  exists  mostly  in 
theory,  by  contesting  almost  every  delegation,  and 
always  ruling  against  Roosevelt,  by  every  manipu 
lation  which  the  "  Old  Guard  "  of  the  party  could 
employ,  Mr.  Taft  was  nominated.  In  at  least 
one  important  and  crucial  case,  delegates  were 
seized  for  Mr.  Taft  by  shameless  theft.  The 
phrase  is  that  used  by  Mr.  Thayer, —  a  historian, 
accustomed  to  weigh  his  words,  and  a  non-parti 
san  in  this  contest,  since  he  favored  neither  Mr. 
Taft  nor  Roosevelt. 

In  August  the  Progressive  Party  was  founded 
at  a  convention  held  in  Chicago.  Roosevelt  and 
Johnson  were  the  nominees  for  President  and 
Vice-President.  The  men  gathered  at  this  con- 


126         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

vention  were  out  of  the  Republican  Party;  they 
had  not  left  it,  but  the  party  had  left  them.  Not 
willingly  did  they  take  this  action;  men  whose 
grandfathers  voted  for  Fremont  in  1856  and  for 
Lincoln  in  1860,  and  again  for  Lincoln  in  1864, 
when  the  fate  of  the  Republic  really  depended  on 
the  success  of  the  Republican  Party.  The  sons  of 
men  who  had  fought  for  the  Union  did  not  lightly 
attack  even  the  name  of  the  old  party.  But  there 
was  nothing  left  but  its  name;  its  worst  elements 
led  it;  many  of  the  better  men  who  stayed  in  it 
kept  silent.  Probably  even  they  realized  the 
nauseous  hypocrisy  of  the  situation  when  Mr. 
William  Barnes  of  New  York  came  forward  and 
implored  that  the  country  be  saved,  that  our  liberty 
be  saved,  that  the  Constitution  be  saved! 

For  the  destroyer,  from  whom  the  country  was 
to  be  saved,  was  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
honorable  men  of  his  time, —  while  it  was  later 
established  in  court  that  it  was  no  libel  to  say 
that  Mr.  Barnes  was  a  Boss  and  had  used  crooked 
methods. 

The  Progressives,  soon  called  the  Bull  Moose 
Party,  attracted  the  usual  group  of  reformers, 
and  some  cranks.  Each  new  party  does  this. 
Roosevelt  had,  many  years  before,  spoken  of  the 
"  lunatic  fringe  "  which  clings  to  the  skirls  of 
every  sincere  reform. 


THE  BULL  MOOSE  127 

"  But  the  whole  body,"  writes  Mr.  Thayer, 
"  judged  without  prejudice,  probably  contained 
the  largest  number  of  disinterested,  public-spirited, 
and  devoted  persons,  who  had  ever  met  for  a 
national  and  political  object  since  the  group  which 
formed  the  Republican  Party  in  1854." 

All  the  new  measures  which  they  proposed,  al 
though  denounced  by  the  two  old  parties,  were 
in  use  in  other  democratic  countries;  many  of 
them  have  since  been  adopted  here.  Roosevelt 
foresaw  the  radical  wave  which  was  later  to  sweep 
over  the  country  and  was  trying  to  make  our 
government  more  liberal,  so  as  to  meet  the  new 
spirit  of  things.  The  more  radical  of  Socialists 
always  hated  him  as  their  worst  enemy,  for  they 
knew  that  his  reasonable  reforms  would  make  it 
impossible  for  them  to  succeed  in  their  extreme 
proposals. 

The  jokes  made  about  the  new  party  were  often 
most  amusing  and  added  a  great  deal  of  interest 
to  an  exciting  campaign.  The  Bull  Moosers  were 
very  much  in  earnest,  and  had  a  camp-meeting 
fervor,  which  laid  them  open  to  a  good  deal  of 
ridicule.  But  they  could  stand  it,  for  they  knew 
that  as  between  themselves  and  the  Republicans, 
the  last  laugh  would  be  theirs.  The  Republicans 
had  nominated  Mr.  Taft  by  means  of  delegates 
from  rock-ribbed  Democratic  States  like  Alabama, 


128          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Florida  and  Georgia,  let  them  now  see  if  they 
could  elect  him  by  such  means ! 

One  phase  of  the  campaign  was  a  shame  and  a 
disgrace.  The  Republican  newspapers  joined  in 
the  use  of  abusive  terms  against  Roosevelt,  to  a 
degree  which  has  never  been  paralleled,  before 
nor  since.  They  described  him  as  a  monster,  a 
foul  traitor,  another  Benedict  Arnold,  and  for 
weeks  used  language  about  him  for  which  the 
writers  would  be  overcome  with  shame  if  it  were 
brought  home  to  them  now.  This  had  its 
natural  result.  Just  as  the  speeches  of  Emma 
Goldman  and  others  stirred  up  the  murderer  of 
President  McKinley  to  his  act,  so  this  reiteration 
of  abuse,  this  harping  on  the  assertion  that  Roose 
velt  was  the  enemy  of  the  country,  the  destroyer 
of  law  and  liberty,  induced  another  weak-minded 
creature  to  attempt  murder. 

A  man  named  Schrank  who  said  that  he  had 
been  led  on  by  what  he  read  in  the  papers,  waited 
for  Roosevelt  outside  a  hotel  in  Milwaukee. 
This  was  during  the  campaign  and  Roosevelt  was 
leaving  the  hotel  to  make  a  speech  in  a  public 
hall.  As  he  stood  up  in  his  automobile,  Schrank 
shot  him  in  the  chest.  The  bullet  was  partially 
checked  by  a  thick  roll  of  paper  —  the  notes  for 
his  speech  —  and  by  an  eye-glasses  case.  Never- 


THE  BULL  MOOSE  129 

theless,  with  the  bullet  in  him,  only  stopping  to 
change  his  blood-soaked  shirt,  he  refused  to  quit. 
He  went  and  made  his  speech,  standing  on  the 
platform  and  speaking  for  over  an  hour. 

He  thought  of  himself  as  a  soldier  fighting  for 
a  cause,  and  he  would  no  more  leave  because  of  a 
wound  than  he  would  have  deserted  his  fellow- 
hunter  in  Africa,  when  that  charging  lion  came 
down  on  them. 

For  two  weeks  he  had  to  keep  out  of  the  cam 
paign,  recovering  from  his  wound,  first  in  a  hos 
pital  and  then  at  home.  Governor  Wilson,  the 
Democratic  nominee,  soon  to  be  the  President- 
Elect,  generously  offered  to  cease  his  campaign 
speeches,  but  this  offer  was  declined  by  Mr. 
Roosevelt. 

In  the  election,  Mr.  Wilson  was  the  winner, 
with  Mr.  Roosevelt  second.  The  Progressive 
candidate  beat  the  Republican,  as  it  had  been  pre 
dicted  he  would.  Mr.  Roosevelt  received  over 
half  a  million  more  votes  than  Mr.  Taft,  and  had 
eighty-eight  electoral  votes  to  eight  for  Mr.  Taft. 
The  Bosses  were  punished  for  defying  the  will  of 
the  voters  and  a  useful  lesson  in  politics  was  ad 
ministered. 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Thayer  is  especially  valu 
able,  since  he  was  a  supporter  of  Mr.  Wilson  in 


1 30         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

this  election.  He  writes  that  since  the  election 
showed  that  Roosevelt  had  been  all  the  time  the 
real  choice  of  the  Republican  Party  "  it  was  the 
Taft  faction  and  not  Roosevelt  which  split  the 
Republican  Party  in  1912." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  EXPLORER 

I  cannot  rest  from  travel;  I  will  drink 

Life  to  the  lees.     All  times  I  have  enjoy'd 

Greatly,  have  suffered  greatly,  both  with -those 

That  loved  me,  and  alone;  on  shore,  and  when 

Thro'  scudding  drifts  the  rainy  Hyades 

Vext  the  dim  sea.     I  am  become  a  name; 

For  always  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart 

Much  have  I  seen  and  known, —  cities  of  men 

And  manners,  climates,  councils,  governments, 

Myself  not  least,  but  honor'd  of  them  all, — 

And  drunk  delight  of  battle  with  my  peers, 

Far  on  the  ringing  plains  of  windy  Troy.  .  .  . 

How  dull  it  is  to  pause,  to  make  an  end, 

To  rust  unburnish'd,  not  to  shine  in  use ! 

As  tho'  to  breathe  were  life!     Life  piled  on  life 

Were  all  top  little,  and  of  one  to  me 

Little  remains ;  but  every  hour  is  saved 

From  that  eternal  silence,  something  more, 

A  bringer  of  new  things ;  and  vile  it  were 

For  some  three  suns  to  store  and  hoard  myself, 

And  this  grey  spirit  yearning  in  desire 

To  follow  knowledge  like  a  sinking  star, 

Beyond  the  utmost  bound  of  human  thought. 

TENNYSON'S  Ulysses. 

MR.  ROOSEVELT  took  his  defeat  without  whimp 
ering.  When  he  was  in  a  fight  he  gave  blows 
and  expected  to  receive  them.  His  enemies  often 
hit  foul  blows,  and  this  his  friends  resented,  es 
pecially  when  the  attacks  actually  provoked  an 
131 


132          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

attempt  at  murder.  When  his  private  character 
was  assailed  he  defended  himself,  promptly  and 
successfully.  But  neither  he  nor  any  of  his 
friends  asked  that  he  should  be  sacred  from  all 
criticism;  nor  feebly  protested  that  he  was  above 
ordinary  mortals,  and  only  to  be  mentioned  with 
a  sort  of  trembling  reverence.  He  was  too  much 
of  a  man  to  be  kept  wrapped  in  wool. 

In  1913  he  traveled  through  South  American 
countries  to  speak  before  learned  bodies  which 
had  invited  him  to  come  before  them.  After 
wards,  with  his  'son  Kermit,  some  American  nat 
uralists,  and  Colonel  Rondon,  a  brave  and  dis 
tinguished  Brazilian  officer,  he  made  a  long  trip 
through  the  wilderness  of  Brazil,  to  hunt  and 
explore.  Some  of  the  country  through  which 
they  traveled  was  little  known  to  white  men ;  some 
of  it  absolutely  unknown.  They  hunted  and 
killed  specimens  of  the  jaguar,  tapir,  peccary, 
and  nearly  all  of  the  other  strange  South  Ameri 
can  animals. 

In  February  1914,  they  set  out  upon  an  un 
known  stream  called  the  River  of  Doubt.  They 
did  not  know  whether  the  exploration  of  this  river 
would  take  them  weeks  or  months ;  whether  they 
might  have  to  face  starvation,  or  savage  tribes,  or 
worse  than  either,  disease.  They  surveyed  the 
river  as  they  went,  so  as  to  be  able  to  map  its 


THE  EXPLORER  133 

course,  and  add  to  geographical  knowledge. 
Strange  birds  haunted  the  river,  and  vicious 
stinging  insects  annoyed  the  travelers.  They 
constantly  had  to  carry  the  canoes  around  rapids 
or  waterfalls,  so  that  progress  was  slow.  Some 
of  the  canoes  were  damaged  and  others  had  to  be 
built.  Large  birds,  like  the  curassow,  and 
also  monkeys,  were  shot  for  food.  The  pest 
of  stinging  insects  grew  constantly  worse, —  bees, 
mosquitoes,  large  blood-sucking  flies  and  enor 
mous  ants  tormented  them.  The  flies  were  called 
piums  and  borashudas.  Some  of  them  bit  like 
scorpions. 

Kermit  Roosevelt's  canoe  was  caught  in  the 
rapids,  smashed  and  sunk,  and  one  of  the  men 
drowned.  Once  they  saw  signs  of  some  unknown 
tribe  of  Indians,  when  one  of  the  dogs  belonging 
to  the  party  was  killed  in  the  forest,  almost 
within  sight  of  Colonel  Rondon,  and  found  with 
two  arrows  in  his  body.  The  river  was  dangerous 
for  bathing,  because  of  a  peculiar  fish  —  the 
piranha  —  a  savage  little  beast  which  attacks  men 
and  animals  with  its  razor-like  teeth,  inflicts  fear 
ful  wounds  and  may  even  kill  any  unfortunate 
creature  which  is  caught  by  a  school  in  deep 
water.  Some  members  of  the  party  were  badly 
bitten  by  the  piranhas. 

As  their  long  and  difficult  course  down  the  river 


134         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

continued,  and  as  their  hardships  increased,  one  of 
the  native  helpers  murdered  another  native  —  a 
sergeant  —  and  fled.  Roosevelt,  while  in  the 
water  helping  to  right  an  upset  canoe,  bruised  his 
leg  against  a  boulder.  Inflammation  set  in,  as 
it  usually  does  with  wounds  in  the  tropics.  For 
forty-eight  days  they  saw  no  human  being  outside 
their  own  party.  They  were  all  weak  with  fever 
and  troubled  with  wounds  received  in  the  river. 
Colonel  Roosevelt  (who  was  nearly  fifty- six  years 
old)  wrote  of  his  own  condition: 

The  after  effects  of  the  fever  still  hung  on;  and  the 
leg  which  had  been  hurt  while  working  in  the  rapids 
with  the  sunken  canoe  had  taken  a  turn  for  the  bad 
and  developed  an  abscess.  The  good  doctor,  to  whose 
unwearied  care  and  kindness  I  owe  much,  had  cut  it 
open  and  inserted  a  drainage  tube;  an  added  charm 
being  given  the  operation,  and  the  subsequent  dressings, 
by  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  piums  and  boroshudas 
took  part  therein.  I  could  hardly  hobble,  and  was 
pretty  well  laid  up.  "  But  "  there  aren't  no  '  stop  con 
ductor/  while  a  battery's  changing  ground."  No  man 
has  any  business  to  go  on  such  a  trip  as  ours  unless 
he  will  refuse  to  jeopardize  the  welfare  of  his  associates 
by  any  delay  caused  by  a  weakness  or  ailment  of  his. 
It  is  his  duty  to  go  forward,  if  necessary  on  all  fours, 
until  he  drops.  Fortunately,  I  was  put  to  no  such  test. 
I  remained  in  good  shape  until  we  had  passed  the  last 
of  the  rapids  of  the  chasms.  When  my  serious  trouble 
came  we  had  only  canoe-riding  ahead  of  us.  It  is  not 


THE  EXPLORER  135 

ideal  for  a  sick  man  to  spend  the  hottest  hours  of  the 
day  stretched  on  the  boxes  in  the  bottom  of  a  small 
open  dugout,  under  the  well-nigh  intolerable  heat  of  the 
torrid  sun  of  the  mid-tropics,  varied  by  blinding, 
drenching  downpours  of  rain ;  but  I  could  not  be  suf 
ficiently  grateful  for  the  chance.  Kermit  and  Cherrie 
took  care  of  me  as  if  they  had  been  trained  nurses;  and 
Colonel  Rondon  and  Lyra  were  no  less  thoughtful.1 

It  is  known  that  his  illness  was  more  serious, 
and  his  conduct  much  more  unselfish  than  he  told 
in  his  book.  When  he  could  not  be  moved,  he 
asked  the  others  to  go  forward  for  their  own 
safety  and  leave  him.  They  refused,  naturally, 
and  he  secretly  resolved  to  shoot  himself  if  his 
condition  did  not  soon  improve,  rather  than  be  a 
drag  on  the  party. 

In  his  report  to  the  Brazilian  Government, 
which  had  made  the  expedition  possible  by  its 
aid,  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  able  to  say: 

"  We  have  put  on  the  map  a  river  about  1500 
kilometers  in  length  running  from  just  south  of 
the  1 3th  degree  to  north  of  the  5th  degree  and 
the  biggest  affluent  of  the  Madeira.  Until  now 
its  upper  course  has  been  utterly  unknown  to 
every  one,  and  its  lower  course,  although  known 
for  years  to  the  rubber  men,  utterly  unknown  to 
cartographers." 

1 "  Through  the  Brazilian  Wilderness,"  p.  319. 


136          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  Brazilian  Government  renamed  the  river 
in  his  honor,  first  the  Rio  Roosevelt,  later  the  Rio 
Teodoro.  Branches  of  it  were  named  in  honor 
of  other  members  of  the  party,  the  Rio  Kermit  and 
the  Rio  Cherrie, —  the  latter  for  the  American 
naturalist,  Mr.  George  K.  Cherrie. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  MAN 

WHAT  did  Theodore  Roosevelt  do  during  his  life 
that  raised  him  above  other  men  ?  What  were  his 
achievements?  Why  are  memorials  and  monu 
ments  raised  in  his  honor,  books  written  about 
him?  Why  do  people  visit  his  grave,  and  care  to 
preserve  the  house  where  he  was  born  ? 

First,  because  he  helped  the  cause  of  better 
government  all  his  life,  as,  while  in  college,  he  said 
that  he  was  going  to  do. 

Second,  because  he  had  a  good  influence  on 
politics,  upon  business,  and  upon  American  life 
generally.  Dishonest  and  shady  dealings  which 
were  common  when  he  left  college,  became  very 
much  less  common  as  a  result  of  his  work.  No 
other  American  did  as  much  as  he  for  this  im 
provement. 

Third,  because  he  practiced  the  "  square 
deal."  It  did  not  matter  to  him  if  the  evil-doer 
was  rich  or  poor, —  Roosevelt  was  his  enemy. 
The  criminal  who  had  many  friends  in  Wall 
Street  was  a  criminal  still  in  his  eyes;  and  the 
137 


138         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

rascal  who  had  friends  in  labor  unions  was  never 
theless  a  rascal  to  him.  He  would  not  denounce 
one  and  go  easy  with  the  other.  Poisoning  peo 
ple  with  bad  meat  was  no  less  a  crime  to  him 
because  it  was  said  to  be  done  in  the  interests  of 
"  business  " ;  blowing  up  people  with  bombs  was 
not  to  be  considered  any  less  than  murder  because 
some  one  said  it  was  done  to  help  "  labor." 

Next,  he  practiced  what  he  preached.  When 
the  great  time  came,  he  was  ready  "  to  pay  with 
his  body  for  his  soul's  desire." 

While  President,  he  proved  by  his  conduct  of 
our  relations  with  foreign  countries,  that  it  is 
possible  both  to  keep  peace  and  to  keep  our  self 
respect,  and  that  this  can  be  done  only  by  firmness 
and  courage. 

He  maintained  our  national  defenses  at  the 
highest  possible  level,  scorning  to  risk  his  fellow- 
countrymen's  lives  and  fortunes  through  neglect 
of  the  Army  and  Navy. 

By  his  wisdom,  promptness  and  moral  courage 
in  an  emergency  he  made  the  Panama  Canal  pos 
sible. 

He  led  in  a  great  fight  for  liberal  politics,  try 
ing  to  put  the  ruling  power  of  the  nation  once 
more  in  the  hands  of  its  citizens,  and  showing 
by  his  action  that  his  country  was  dearer  to  him 
than  any  political  party. 


THE  MAN  139 

Finally,  in  the  very  last  years  of  his  life,  and  in 
a  time  of  dreadful  national  trial,  his  great  voice 
became  the  true  voice  of  America  to  lead  his 
countrymen  out  of  a  quagmire  of  doubt  and  dis 
loyalty. 

You  may  have  heard  it  said  that  he  was  con 
ceited,  arrogant,  head-strong.  What  did  the  men 
nearest  him  think  ?  John  Hay,  the  polished  diplo 
mat,  who  had  been  private  secretary  to  Abraham 
Lincoln,  wrote  about  Roosevelt  in  his  diary. 
November  28,  1904: 

I  read  the  President's  message  in  the  afternoon.  .  .  . 
Made  several  suggestions  as  to  changes  and  omissionsu 
The  President  came  in  just  as  I  had  finished  and  we 
went  over  the  matter  together.  He  accepted  my  ideas 
with  that  singular  amiability  and  open-mindedness 
which  form  so  striking  a  contrast  with  the  general 
idea  of  his  brusque  and  arbitrary  character. 

You  may  have  heard  it  said  that  he  acted 
hastily,  went  ahead  on  snap- judgments.  On  this 
subject,  Mr.  Hay  wrote: 

Roosevelt  is  prompt  and  energetic,  but  he  takes  in 
finite  pains  to  get  at  the  facts  before  he  acts.  In  all 
the  crises  in  which  he  has  been  accused  of  undue  haste, 
his  action  has  been  the  result  of  long  meditation 
and  well-reasoned  conviction.  If  he  thinks  rapidly, 
that  is  no  fault;  he  thinks  thoroughly,  and  that  is  the 
essential. 


140         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

He  was  never  a  humbug.  He  did  not  deny  that 
he  enjoyed  being  President.  He  never  let  his 
friends  point  to  him,  while  he  was  in  the  White 
House,  as  a  martyr.  He  had  a  good  time  wher 
ever  he  was.  As  he  wrote : 

I  remember  once  sitting  at  a  table  with  six  or  eight 
other  public  officials,  and  each  was  explaining  how  he 
regarded  being  in  public  life  —  how  only  the  sternest 
sense  of  duty  prevented  him  from  resigning  his  office, 
and  how  the  strain  of  working  for  a  thankless  con 
stituency  was  telling  upon  him  —  and  that  nothing  but 
the  fact  that  he  felt  that  he  ought  to  sacrifice  his  com 
fort  to  the  welfare  of  his  country  kept  him  in  the 
arduous  life  of  statesmanship.  It  went  round  the  table 
until  it  came  to  my  turn.  This  was  during  my  first 
term  of  office  as  President  of  the  United  States.  I  said : 
"  Now,  gentlemen,  I  do  not  wish  there  to  be  any  mis 
understanding.  I  like  my  job,  and  I  want  to  keep  it  for 
four  years  more."  1 

As  for  the  question  whether  he  acted  from  per 
sonal  ambition,  or  from  devotion  to  the  cause  he 
represented,  the  following  incident  is  as  strong  a 
piece  of  evidence  as  we  have  about  any  of  our  pub 
lic  men.  It  is  related  by  Mr.  Travers  Carman, 
of  the  Outlook,  who  accompanied  Colonel  Roose 
velt  to  the  Republican  convention  in  1912. 

Roosevelt,  on  the  evening  of  this  conference  in 
the  Congress  Hotel,  lacked  only  twenty-eight 

i  Abbott,  p.  loo. 


THE  MAN  141 

votes  to  secure  the  nomination  for  President. 
Mr.  Carman  was  in  the  room,  when  a  delegate 
entered,  in  suppressed  excitement,  announcing 
that  he  represented  thirty-two  Southern  delegates 
who  would  pledge  themselves  to  vote  for  the 
Colonel,  if  they  could  be  permitted  to  vote  with 
the  "  regular  "  Republicans  on  all  matters  of  party 
organization,  upon  the  platform,  and  so  on. 
Here  were  thirty-two  votes, —  four  more  than 
were  needed  to  give  him  the  nomination. 

Without  a  moment's  hesitation  and  in  the  death-like 
silence  of  that  room  the  Colonel's  answer  rang  out, 
clearly  and  distinctly :  "  Thank  the  delegates  you  repre 
sent,  but  tell  them  that  I  cannot  permit  them  to  vote 
for  me  unless  they  vote  for  all  progressive  principles 
for  which  I  have  fought,  for  which  the  Progressive 
element  in  the  Republican  party  stands,  and  by  which 
I  stand  or  fall."  Strong  men  broke  down  under  the 
stress  of  that  night.  Life-long  friends  of  Mr.  Roose 
velt  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  reconsider  his  de 
cision.  After  listening  patiently  he  turned  to  two  who 
had  been  urging  him  to  accept  the  offer  of  the  Southern 
delegates,  placed  a  hand  on  the  shoulder  of  each,  and 
said:  "I  have  grown  to  regard  you  both  as  brothers; 
let  no  act  or  word  of  yours  make  that  relationship  im 
possible."  x 

Two  important  law-suits  occupied  some  of 
Roosevelt's  time  after  the  Progressive  campaign. 

1  Abbott,  p.  85. 


142         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

One  of  the  favorite  slanders  about  Roosevelt,  re 
peated  mostly  by  word  of  mouth,  was  that  he 
drank  to  excess  or  was  an  habitual  drunkard.  At 
last  it  began  to  be  repeated  in  print;  a  Michigan 
newspaper  printed  it,  coupled  with  other  false 
hoods  concerning  his  use  of  profane  language. 
Few  public  men  would  have  cared  to  bring  suit, 
because  the  plaintiff  must  stand  a  cross-examina 
tion.  But  Roosevelt  was  careful  of  his  good 
name;  he  did  not  intend  that  persons  should  be 
able  to  repeat  slander  about  him,  except  in  delib 
erate  bad  faith. 

He  and  his  lawyers  went  to  the  trial,  bringing 
with  them  dozens  of  witnesses,  life-long  friends, 
hunting  companions,  reporters  who  had  accom 
panied  him  on  political  campaigns,  fellow-soldiers, 
Cabinet  officers,  physicians,  officers  of  the  Army 
and  Navy.  These  witnesses  testified  for  a  week 
to  his  temperate  habits,  agreeing  absolutely  in 
their  testimony.  The  doctors  pointed  out  that 
only  a  temperate  man  could  have  recovered  so 
quickly  from  his  wound.  It  was  established  that 
he  never  drank  anything  stronger  than  wine,  ex 
cept  as  a  medicine ;  that  he  drank  very  little  wine, 
and  never  got  drunk. 

At  the  end,  the  newspaper  editor  withdrew 
his  statement,  apologized,  was  found  guilty  and 
fined  only  nominal  charges.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was 


THE  MAN  143 

not'  after  this  small  creature's  money,  but  was 
only  bent  on  clearing  his  reputation.  So  it  was  at 
his  request  that  the  fine  was  fixed  at  six  cents. 

Mr.  William  Barnes,  the  Albany  politician,  sued 
Mr.  Roosevelt  for  libel,  because  Roosevelt  had 
called  him  a  Boss,  and  said  that  he  used  crooked 
methods.  This  had  been  said  in  a  political  cam 
paign.  The  Republicans  were  looking  for  some 
chance  to  destroy  Roosevelt,  and  Mr.  Barnes, 
aided  by  an  able  Republican  lawyer,  thought  that 
they  would  be  doing  a  great  service  if  they  could 
besmirch  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  some  way. 

So  they  worked  their  hardest  and  best,  cross- 
examined  him  for  days  and  searched  every  inci 
dent  of  his  political  life.  At  the  end  they  joined 
that  large  band  of  disappointed  men  who  tried  to 
destroy  Roosevelt  or  catch  him  in  something  dis 
reputable.  For  the  jury  decided  in  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  favor,  indicating  that  he  had  uttered  no 
untruth  when  he  made  his  remarks  about  Mr. 
Barnes. 

As  a  writer,  Mr.  Roosevelt  would  have  made  a 
name  for  himself,  if  he  had  done  nothing  else. 
The  success  of  his  books  is  not  due  to  the  high 
offices  which  he  held,  for  his  best  writings  had 
nothing  to  do  with  politics.  As  a  writer  on 
politics  he  was  forceful  and  clear.  There  was  no 
doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  his  state  papers;  they 


144         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

never  had  to  be  explained  nor  "  interpreted." 
They  were  not  designed  to  mean  any  one  of  two 
or  three  things,  according  to  later  circumstances. 
Strength  and  directness  were  the  characteristics. 
When  writing  about  the  by-ways  of  politics  his 
enjoyment  of  the  ridiculous  made  his  work  es 
pecially  readable.  When  he  felt  deeply  about  any 
great  issue,  as  in  his  last  years,  about  the  Great 
War,  and  our  part  in  it,  his  indignation  found 
its  way  into  his  pages,  which  became  touched  with 
the  fire  of  genuine  eloquence. 

He  wrote  about  books  and  animals,  and  about 
outdoor  life,  as  no  President  has  ever  done.  His 
remarks  upon  literature  are  those  of  a  great  book- 
lover,  sensible,  well-informed  and  free  from  pose. 

Every  one  should  read  his  "  Autobiography," 
his  "  Hero  Tales  from  American  History  "  which 
he  wrote  in  company  with  Senator  Lodge,  and  his 
"  Letters  to  His  Children."  His  early  accounts 
of  hunting  in  the  West  make  good  reading,  but  in 
his  book  about  his  African  hunt,  and  in  the  one 
on  the  South  American  trip,  he  probably  reached 
his  highest  level  as  a  writer.  If  any  American 
has  written  better  books  of  travel  than  these, 
more  continuously  interesting,  fuller  of  pleasing 
detail  about  the  little  incidents,  the  birds  and  tiny 
animals  which  he  encountered,  and  at  the  same 
time  with  a  stricter  regard  for  accuracy  of  obser- 


Courtesy   of  Charles  Scribner's  Sons 
and    Lord    Lee    of  Fareham. 


From  a  painting  by  P.  Laszlo. 


PRESIDENT   THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 


THE  MAN  145 

vation,  I  do  not  know  where  they  are  to  be  found. 
This  man  of  politics  had  a  true  poetic  feeling 
for  the  countries  he  visited;  time  and  again  he 
moves  his  readers  in  describing  the  wonders  of 
the  great  waste  places,  the  melancholy  deserts 
and  wildernesses,  the  deadly  fascination  of  the 
jungle,  and  the  awful  glory  of  the  tropic  dawns 
and  sunsets.  When  something  awakened  his  im 
agination  he  could  write  passages  full  of  the 
magic  of  poetry.  Witness  this,  it  is  not  a 
description  of  scenery,  but  a  vision  of  the  true 
historian  of  the  future : 

The  true  historian  will  bring  the  past  before  our  eyes 
as  if  it  were  the  present.  He  will  make  us  see  as  living 
men  the  hard-faced  archers  of  Agincourt,  and  the  war 
worn  spear-men  who  followed  Alexander  down  beyond 
the  rim  of  the  known  world.  We  shall  hear  grate  on 
the  coast  of  Britain  the  keels  of  the  Low-Dutch  sea- 
thieves  whose  children's  children  were  to  inherit  un 
known  continents.  .  .  .  Beyond  the  dim  centuries  we 
shall  see  the  banners  float  above  armed  hosts.  .  .  Dead 
poets  shall  sing  to  us  of  the  deeds  of  men  of  might  and 
the  love  and  beauty  of  women.  We  shall  see  the  danc 
ing  girls  of  Memphis.  The  scent  of  the  flowers  in  the 
hanging  gardens  of  Babylon  will  be  heavy  to  our  senses. 
We  shall  sit  at  feast  with  the  kings  of  Nineveh  when 
they  drink  from  ivory  and  gold.  .  .  .  For  us  the  war- 
horns  of  King  Olaf  shall  wail  across  the  flood,  and  the 
harps  sound  high  at  festivals  in  forgotten  halls.  The 
frowning  strongholds  of  the  barons  of  old  shall  rise 


146         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

before  us,  and  the  white  palace-castles  from  whose 
windows  Syrian  princes  once  looked  across  the  blue 
yEgean.  .  .  .  We  shall  see  the  terrible  horsemen  of 
Timur  the  Lame  ride  over  the  roof  of  the  world;  we 
shall  hear  the  drums  beat  as  the  armies  of  Gustavus  and 
Frederick  and  Napoleon  drive  forward  to  victory.1 

Here  is  one  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  anecdotes  of  an 
incident  in  the  White  House.  It  shows  why  the 
people  were  interested  in  that  house  while  he  lived 
in  it: 

"  No  guests  were  ever  more  welcome  at  the 
White  House  than  these  old  friends  of  the  cattle 
ranches  and  the  cow  camps  —  the  men  with  whom 
I  had  ridden  the  long  circle  and  eaten  at  the  tail 
board  of  a  chuck-wagon  —  whenever  they  turned 
up  at  Washington  during  my  Presidency.  I  re 
member  one  of  them  who  appeared  at  Washington 
one  day  just  before  lunch,  a  huge  powerful  man, 
who,  when  I  knew  him,  had  been  distinctly  a 
fighting  character.  It  happened  that  on  that  day 
another  old  friend,  the  British  Ambassador,  Mr. 
Bryce,  was  among  those  coming  to  lunch.  Just 
before  we  went  in  I  turned  to  my  cow-puncher 
friend  and  said  to  him  with  great  solemnity,  *  Re 
member,  Jim,  that  if  you  shot  at  the  feet  of  the 
British  Ambassador  to  make  him  dance,  it  would 
be  likely  to  cause  international  complications  ';  to 

1  "  History  as  Literature,"  p.  32,  et  seq. 


THE  MAN  147 

which  Jim  responded  with  unaffected  horror, 
'Why,  Colonel,  I  shouldn't  think  of  it!  I 
shouldn't  think  of  it!"'1 

And  here  is  one  about  his  children : 

"  The  small  boy  was  convalescing,  and  was 
engaged  in  playing  on  the  floor  with  some  tin 
ships,  together  with  two  or  three  pasteboard  mon 
itors  and  rams  of  my  own  manufacture.  He  was 
giving  a  vivid  rendering  of  Farragut  at  Mobile 
Bay,  from  memories  of  how  I  had  told  the  story. 
My  pasteboard  rams  were  fascinating  —  if  a 
naval  architect  may  be  allowed  to  praise  his  own 
work  —  and  as  property  they  were  equally  di 
vided  between  the  little  girl  and  the  small  boy. 
The  little  girl  looked  on  with  alert  suspicion  from 
the  bed,  for  she  was  not  yet  convalescent  enough 
to  be  allowed  down  on  the  floor.  The  small  boy 
was  busily  reciting  the  phases  of  the  fight,  which 
now  approached  its  climax,  and  the  little  girl  evi 
dently  suspected  that  her  monitor  was  destined  to 
play  the  part  of  victim. 

"  Little  boy.  '  And  then  they  steamed  bang 
into  the  monitor.' 

"  Little  girl.  '  Brother,  don't  you  sink  my 
monitor ! ' 

"  Little  boy    (without  heeding   and  hurrying 

1  "  Autobiography,"  p.  132. 


148         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

toward  the  climax).     '  And  the  torpedo  went  at 
the  monitor ! ' 

"  Little  girl.     '  My  monitor  is  not  to  sink ! ' 
"  Little  boy,  dramatically;  '  And  bang  the  mon 
itor  sank ! ' 

"  Little  girl.  '  It  didn't  do  any  such  thing. 
My  monitor  always  goes  to  bed  at  seven,  and  it's 
now  quarter  past.  My  monitor  was  in  bed  and 
couldn't  sink!'"1 

1 "  Autobiography,"  p.  367. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   GREAT   AMERICAN 

Death  closes  all;  but  something  ere  the  end, 

Some  work  of  noble  note,  may  yet  be  done.  .  .  . 

Tho'  much  is  taken,  much  abides ;  and  tho' 

We  are  not  now  that  strength  which  in  old  days 

Moved  earth  and  heaven,   that  which  we  are,  we  are, — 

One  equal  temper  of  heroic  hearts, 

Made  weak  by  time  and  fate,  but  strong  in  will 

To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find  and  not  to  yield. 

TENNYSON'S  Ulysses. 

NOT  many  months  after  Roosevelt  carnc  back 
from  South  America,  the  Great  War  in  Europe 
broke  out.  It  is  but  dreaming  now  to  surmise 
what  might  have  been  done  in  those  fearful  days 
of  July  1914,  when  the  German  hordes  were  gath 
ering  for  their  attack  upon  the  world.  Once  be 
fore,  and  singlehanded,  this  country  had  made  the 
German  Kaiser  halt.  Had  there  been  resolution 
in  the  White  House  in  1914,  could  all  the  neutral 
nations  have  been  rallied  at  our  side,  and  could 
we  have  spoken  in  tones  so  decisive  to  the  Hun 
that  he  would  have  drawn  back  even  then,  have 
left  Belgium  unravaged,  and  spared  the  world  the 
misery  of  the  next  four  years?  It  may  be  so; 

149 


150         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Germany  did  not  expect  to  have  to  take  on  Eng 
land  as  an  enemy.  If  she  had  been  told,  so  that 
there  ivas  no  mistaking  our  meaning,  that  she 
would  have  us  against  her  as  well,  then  it  might 
have  been  her  part  to  hesitate,  and  finally  put 
back  her  sword. 

Roosevelt  supported  the  President  at  first,  in 
his  policy  of  neutrality,  supposing  him  to  have 
some  special  information.  He  supported  him 
with  hesitation,  and  with  qualifications  however, 
pointing  out  that  neutrality  is  no  proud  position, 
and  has  many  disadvantages.  Perhaps  he  had 
some  inklings  of  the  danger  to  the  country  when 
our  foreign  affairs  are  managed  by  pacifists. 
Certainly  America  had  noticed  the  grim  fact  that 
a  Government  which  forever  talked  about  peace 
had  in  actual  practice,  shed  more  blood  in  a  few 
hours  at  Vera  Cruz  than  had  been  spilled  in  all 
the  seven  years  while  Roosevelt  was  President. 
Moreover,  this  blood  was  shed  uselessly;  no  ob 
ject  whatever  having  been  gained  by  it. 

It  is  impossible  to  understand  Roosevelt;  it  is 
impossible  to  get  any  idea  of  what  he  did  during 
his  term  of  office;  it  is  impossible  to  learn  any 
thing  from  his  career,  unless  we  contrast  him 
and  his  beliefs  and  actions  with  the  conduct  of  our 
Government  during  the  Great  War.  An  object 
lesson  of  the  most  illuminating  sort  is  afforded  by 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  151 

this  contrast,  and  we  may  make  up  our  minds 
about  the  wisest  paths  to  be  followed  in  the 
future  if  we  notice  what  Roosevelt  said  and  did 
at  this  time,  how  far  and  how  wisely  his  counsel 
was  accepted  or  rejected. 

He  disapproved,  for  instance,  President  Wil 
son's  speech,  made  a  day  or  two  after  the  sinking 
of  the  Lusitania  in  which  the  President  spoke  of  a 
nation  being  "  too  proud  to  fight."  Roosevelt 
said  that  a  nation  which  announced  itself  as  too 
proud  to  fight  was  usually  about  proud  enough  to 
be  kicked;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Ger 
mans  took  that  view  of  it,  and  for  a  year  and  more 
continued  to  kick.  He  did  not  deem  it  wise, 
when  President  Wilson  informed  the  Germans,  ten 
days  later,  that  we  remembered  the  "  humane 
attitude  "  of  their  Government  "  in  matters  of  in 
ternational  right/'  for  he  happened  to  recall  that 
Belgium  was  at  that  moment  red  with  the  blood 
of  its  citizens,  slain  by  the  Germans  in  a  sort 
of  warfare  that  combined  highway  robbery 
with  revolting  murder.  Neither  did  it  seem 
useful  to  him  to  speak  about  German  influence 
as  always  "  upon  the  side  of  justice  and  hu 
manity." 

Mr.  Roosevelt  had  always  been  strong  for  hav 
ing  the  nation  ready  for  war  if  war  should  come. 
Mr.  Wilson  first  said  that  persons  who  believed 


152         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

this  were  nervous  and  excited.  Next  he  joined 
these  persons  himself,  so  far  as  words  went,  and 
finally  he  let  the  matter  drop  until  we  were  at 
war.  Mr.  Roosevelt  believed  that  when  you  once 
were  at  war  it  was  a  crime  to  "  hit  softly."  Mr. 
Wilson  waited  until  we  had  been  at  war  a  year  and 
over,  and  then  announced  in  a  speech  that  he  was 
determined  to  use  force! 

Mr.  Roosevelt  wrote  regularly  for  The  Out 
look,  later  for  the  Metropolitan  Magazine  and  the 
Kansas  City  Star.  Thousands  of  his  countrymen 
read  his  articles,  and  found  in  them  the  only  ex 
pression  of  the  American  spirit  which  was  being 
uttered.  Americans  were  puzzled,  troubled  and 
finally  humiliated  by  the  letters  and  speeches 
which  came  from  Washington.  To  be  told  that 
in  this  struggle  between  the  blood-guilty  Hun, 
and  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth,  that  we 
must  keep  even  our  minds  impartial  seemed  an 
impossible  command.  School-boys  throughout 
the  country  must  have  wondered  why  President 
Wilson,  with  every  means  for  getting  infor 
mation,  should  have  to  confess  that  he  did  not 
know  what  the  war  was  about!  And  when  Mr. 
Wilson  declared  in  favor  of  a  peace  without 
victory,  his  friends  and  admirers  were  kept  busy 
explaining,  some  of  them,  that  he  meant  without 
victory  for  the  Allies,  and  others  that  he  meant 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  153 

without  victory  for  Germany,  and  still  others  that 
he  meant  without  victory  for  anybody  in  partic 
ular. 

No  wonder  that  Americans  began  to  wonder 
what  country  they  were  living  in,  and  whether 
they  had  been  mistaken  in  thinking  that  America 
had  a  heroic  history,  in  which  its  citizens  took 
pride.  No  wonder  they  turned  their  eyes  to 
Europe,  where  scores  of  young  Americans,  sick 
ening  at  the  state  of  things  at  home,  had  eagerly 
volunteered  to  fight  with  France  or  England 
against  the  Hun.  One  of  these,  named  Alan 
Seeger,  who  wrote  the  fine  poem  "  I  have  a  Ren 
dezvous  with  Death,"  died  in  battle  on  our  In 
dependence  Day.  He  also  wrote  a  poem  called 
"  A  Message  to  America."  l  In  it  he  said  that 
America  had  once  a  leader : 

.  .  .  the  man 
Most  fit  to  be  called  American. 

In  it  he  spoke  further  of  the  same  leader 

I  have  been  too  long  from  my  country's  shores 

To  reckon  what  state  of  mind  is  yours, 

But  as  for  myself  I  know  right  well 

I  would  go  through  fire  and  shot  and  shell 

And  face  new  perils  and  make  my  bed 

In  new  privations,  if  Roosevelt  led. 

1  Seeger.    Poems,  pp.  164,  165. 


i54         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

One  did  not  have  to  be  long  with  the  men  who 
volunteered  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  know 
that  Roosevelt's  spirit  led  these  men,  and  that 
they  looked  to  him  and  trusted  him  as  the  great 
American.  The  country's  honor  was  safe  in  his 
hands,  and  no  mawkish  nor  cowardly  words  ever 
came  from  his  lips. 

He  pointed  out  the  folly  of  the  pacifist  type  of 
public  men,  like  Mr.  Bryan  and  Mr.  Ford.  The 
latter,  helpless  as  a  butterfly  in  those  iron  years, 
led  his  quarreling  group  of  pilgrims  to  Europe, 
on  his  "  Peace  Ship,"  and  then  left  them  to  their 
incessant  fights  with  each  other.  The  American 
public  was  quick  to  see  the  contrast,  when  war 
came,  and  Roosevelt's  four  sons  and  son-in-law  all 
volunteered,  while  Mr.  Ford's  son  took  advantage 
of  some  law  and  avoided  military  duty,  in  order 
to  add  more  millions  to  his  already  enormous  heap. 
The  lesson  of  Roosevelt's  teaching  and  example 
was  not  lost,  and  the  people  recognized  that  the 
country  would  endure  while  it  had  men  like  the 
Roosevelts,  but  that  it  would  go  down  in  infamy 
if  the  other  sort  became  numerous. 

In  the  election  of  1916  Mr.  Roosevelt,  after  re 
fusing  the  Progressive  nomination,  supported  Mr. 
Hughes,  the  Republican,  against  President  Wil 
son.  He  tried  hard  to  get  Mr.  Hughes  to  come  out 
with  some  utterance  which  would  put  him  plainly 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN          155 

on  record  against  the  Germans  and  Pro-Germans 
who  were  filling  America  with  their  poisonous 
schemes.  For  we  continued  to  entertain  Ger 
man  diplomats  and  agents  (paymasters,  as  they 
were,  of  murderers  and  plotters  of  arson)  and  to 
run  on  Germany's  errands  in  various  countries. 
The  cry  "  He  kept  us  out  of  war  "  was  effectively 
used  to  reelect  Mr.  Wilson,  although  members  of 
the  Government  must  have  been  thoroughly  well 
aware  that  war  was  coming  and  coming  soon. 

It  had  long  been  Mr.  Roosevelt's  hope  that  if 
war  came  he  might  be  allowed  to  raise  a  division, 
as  he  had  once  helped  to  raise  a  regiment,  and  take 
them,  after  suitable  training,  to  the  front.  He 
knew  where  he  could  put  his  hands  on  the  men, 
regular  army  officers,  ex-volunteers  and  Rough 
Riders  of  the  Spanish  War,  and  other  men  of  ex 
perience,  who  in  turn  could  find  other  men, 
who  could  be  made  into  soldiers,  for  they  knew 
the  important  parts  of  a  soldier's  work,  and  could 
be  trained  quickly. 

But  the  War  Department  and  the  President 
would  have  none  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  services. 
The  President  replied  that  the  high  officers  of  the 
Army  advised  him  against  it,  which  was  undoubt 
edly  true.  It  is  also  extremely  likely  that  the 
high  officers  of  the  Democratic  Party  would  ad 
vise  against  letting  Mr.  Roosevelt  serve  his  coun- 


156          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

try,  as  they  still  feared  him,  and  still  vainly  hoped 
that  they  could  lessen  his  influence  with  the  Amer 
ican  people.  Unlike  President  Lincoln,  who 
would  gladly  accept  the  services  of  any  man  who 
could  serve  the  country,  Mr.  Wilson  could 
work  only  with  men  who  were  personally  pleasing, 
who  thought  as  he  did  on  all  subjects.  The  officer 
of  the  Army  best  known  to  European  soldiers, 
and  the  one  who  trained  one  of  the  best  divisions, 
was  Roosevelt's  old  commander,  General  Leonard 
Wood.  But  he,  like  a  statesman,  had  been  advis 
ing  preparedness  for  years,  and  he  was  therefore 
displeasing  to  the  politicians  who  only  began  to 
prepare  after  war  was  declared.  America  and 
the  Allies  did  not  have  the  benefit  of  this  dis 
tinguished  officer's  services  in  France. 

Against  the  slothfulness  of  the  Government  in 
these  years,  Roosevelt  voiced  the  true  opinion  of 
America.  He  did  not  merely  criticize,  for  he  of 
fered  his  own  services,  and  when  he  disapproved 
of  what  was  being  done,  he  pointed  out  what 
might  be  done  by  way  of  improvement.  In  spite 
of  much  condemnation  of  his  course,  his  sugges 
tions  were  nearly  all  adopted  —  six  months  or  a 
year  later.  His  offer  to  raise  a  division  showed 
how  many  men  were  eager  to  fight,  and  spurred 
the  Government  into  action. 

The  Germans  and  their  friends  in  this  country, 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN          157 

the  peace-at-any-price  folk  who  defended  or 
apologized  for  the  worst  crimes  of  the  Germans, 
and  all  the  band  of  disloyal  persons  who  think 
that  patriotism  is  something  to  be  sneered  at, —  all 
these  hated  Roosevelt  with  a  deadly  hatred  If 
was  not  a  proud  distinction  to  be  numbered  with 
these,  and  all  who  joined  with  them  have  made 
haste  to  forget  the  fact 

In  his  own  family,  his  eldest  son,  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  Jr.,  became  first  a  Major  and  later  a 
Lieutenant-Colonel  of  Infantry;  Kermit  and 
Archibald  were  both  Captains ;  and  Quentin  was  a 
Lieutenant  in  the  Aviation  force.  His  son-in- 
law,  Dr.  Richard  Derby,  was  a  Major  in  the  Medi 
cal  Corps.  All  of  them  sought  active  service, 
made  even-  effort  to  get  to  the  front,  and  suc 
ceeded.  Two  of  them  were  wounded,  and  Quen 
tin  was  killed  in  a  battle  in  the  air. 

The  death  of  his  youngest  son  was  a  terrible 
Wow  to  him,  but  he  would  not  wince.  His  son 
had  been  true  to  his  teaching;  he  had  dared  the 
high  fortune  of  battle. 

"  You  cannot  bring  up  boys  to  be  eagles,"  said 
he,  "  and  expect  them  to  act  like  sparrows ! " 

Some  distinguished  Japanese  visitors  calling  on 
Mr.  Roosevelt  at  this  time  came  away  deeply  af 
fected.  To  them  he  recalled  the  Samurai,  with 
their  noble  traditions  of  utter  self-sacrifice. 


158          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Throughout  his  life,  but  now  as  never  before, 
he  told  his  countrymen,  there  was  no  place  in 
America  for  a  divided  loyalty.  No  German- 
Americans,  nor  Irish-Americans,  nor  Scotch- 
Americans.  He  would  have  no  man  try  to  split 
even,  and  be  a  "  50-50  American." 

Shortly  after  war  had  ended,  he  sent  this  mes 
sage  to  a  patriotic  meeting: 

There  must  be  no  sagging  back  in  the  fight  for  Ameri 
canism  merely  because  the  war  is  over.  Any  man  who 
says  he  is  an  American,  but  something  else  also,  isn't 
an  American  at  all.  We  have  room  for  but  one  flag, 
the  American  flag,  and  this  excludes  the  red  flag,  which 
symbolizes  all  wars  against  liberty  and  civilization,  just 
as  much  as  it  excludes  any  foreign  flag  of  a  nation  to 
which  we  are  hostile.  We  have  room  for  but  one  lan 
guage  here,  and  that  is  the  English  language,  for  we 
intended  to  see  that  the  crucible  turns  our  people  out 
as  Americans,  of  American  nationality,  and  not  as 
dwellers  in  a  polyglot  boarding-house;  and  we  have 
room  for  but  one  soul  loyalty,  and  that  is  loyalty  to 
the  American  people.1 

It  was  practically  his  last  word  to  the  country 
he  had  loved  and  served  so  well.  That  was  on 
January  5,  1919. 

Years  before,  when  he  and  his  children  had 
played  together,  he  had  told  them  a  story  about 
lions.  Some  of  the  boys  had  been  'called  the  lion 

1  Hagedorn,  p.  384. 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  159 

cubs,  and  henceforth  their  father  was  to  them 
"  The  Old  Lion." 

On  the  sixth  of  January,  one  of  his  sons,  who 
was  at  home  recovering  from  his  wounds,  sent  a 
message  to  his  brothers  in  France : 

The  Old  Lion  is  dead. 

He  was  buried  in  a  small  cemetery  near  his 
Long  Island  home.  A  plain  grave-stone  marks 
the  place.  To  his  grave  have  come  a  King  and  a 
Prince  and  other  men  of  great  name  from  Europe, 
to  lay  wreaths  there,  as  they  put  them  on  the 
tombs  of  Washington  and  Lincoln.  But  what 
would  have  pleased  him  even  more  is  that  every 
Sunday  and  holiday  thousands  of  men,  women 
and  children  who  knew  him,  thousands  who  loved 
him,  although  they  never  saw  him,  men  who 
fought  at  his  side,  and  men  who  fought  against 
him,  go  out  to  stand  for  a  moment  at  his  grave, 
because  they  know  him  now  as  a  wise,  brave,  and 
patriotic  American. 


THE  END 


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